Gears of War: Hope Runs Deep
by Sarazz Prime
Summary: GoW2 AU. Their lives were saved by the single bullet of a sniper... and they don't even know who it is. A series of unrelated events brings Delta Squad and their sniper-savior together in the final conflicts against the Locust Horde.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Gears of War series. All recognizable characters are the property of Epic Games. All unrecognizable characters are the intellectual property of yours truly; their theft will not be tolerated.

Because, we all know, stealing is wrong. Very wrong.

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**Title: **Hope Runs Deep

**Summary: **GoW2 AU. Their lives were saved by the single bullet of a sniper... and they don't even know who it is. A series of unrelated events brings Delta Squad and their sniper-savior together in the final conflicts against the Locust Horde that will ultimately decided the outcome of the war.

**Rating: **T-M (ratings will vary on a chapter-to-chapter basis, but I will be sure to post them)

**Warnings: **Blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, references to alcohol and gambling, adult humor, and some adult situations. Further warnings will be posted on a chapter-to-chapter basis just like the rating as mentioned above.

**Author Notes: **I don't know how many stories are out there about Delta Squad gaining a "new member" to the squad and whatnot, but I don't care! I plan on standing above other stories with something completely different and new... hopefully. I'm a big fan of the whole Gears of War series and have played both games numerous times, so hopefully I won't disappoint with the storyline and action. If I do... well it's a good thing I don't get paid to do this then, lol! And yes, the title of the story is based off the tag-line used for the game.

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**Gears of War: Hope Runs Deep**

**Prologue**

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_Courage is a kind of salvation. - **Plato**_

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It doesn't take much more than that first bullet to whiz by before I react. We all react – all fifteen of us. Theres no think. Our bodies have been here a thousand times before and they move on their own without the wait for our brains to have a say in returning fire. Armored bodies slam up against what cover can be found before the angry hum of Lancers returning fire fills the air. As the squad takes cover, I disappear in search of higher ground, this is my job, I vanish and only my work is seen after that. It doesn't take long to find the perfect advantage point, it's instinct for me to find the right elevation and concealment immediately. There's a dilapidated parking garage to our left and that's where I pick my way through up to the only remaining high floor. The remaining bits of the ceiling are still crumbling, the small pieces click and ping off my helmet as I scurry towards the edge and press myself against the chunk of concrete that had been a barricade.

It takes two seconds for the reticle of my scope to line up the first Drone for a head-shot, it's utter instinct that the shot is adjusted for wind and curve before the trigger is pulled. The bullet is on target... it's always on target... it has to be on target... every time. The lives of fifteen men depend on each shot being on target, there's absolutely no room for error in situations like these. There's a brief shower of blood, skull, and brain matter and before the Drone hits the ground, the reticle is lining up another target. It's creepy in a way, watching the Locust Drones use similar battle strategy as ourselves, taking cover and timing their counter-fire like we do in a morbid sort of mockery. The next shot is lined up, but its halted as the squad leader shouts across the comlines that connect us together.

"_THROWING FRAG!"_

The explosion that follows chokes the air with all sorts of debris and dirt, vision is poor and I'm forced to wait. I can still hear gun fire, from which side though it's hard to tell at this point, it could be either or and even both at this point. Visibility is getting better but I can't wait any longer and the lenses within the eyes of my helmet flicker through several filters, finding the right one that allows me to peer better through the grim that smothers the air. I see two Drones holding behind what's left of the twisted remains that one can only guess was at one point a vehicle of some kind. The shot is lined up, the trigger is pulled and before the remaining Drone can fully react to the bath of gore its comrade has given it, it's down on the ground twitching a few seconds before going still. There's a pause in the gunfire and the air grows still to the point of annoyance.

"_Hawx, you see anything from your point?" _The gargled static distorts the sergeants voice as he calls for an update.

"Negative sir. Saw two Drones and put 'em down already. Air is still to thick to get an accurate assessment of the enemy numbers." The kickback from the frag grenade is starting to die down a bit the incoming exhale of stale wind. "Hold up, wind is coming in from the northeast." I wait patiently, eyes zoning in through the scope of my rifle. "We're all clear sir! Emergence hole has caved; enemies KIA."

"_Copy that, Hawx. Regroup below."_

**The humans of Sera built a glorious civilization... but humans were not destined to create... they inevitably did what they do best: destroy.**

_The high-pitched squeal of the flash grenade rang horribly through their hearing, eyes squinting against the intense flash of light that had come right before the ringing. At least it had done its job and stunned the enemies, only problem was that the throw had been blind and not entirely accurate. The flash grenade had managed to at least make it to the foot of the concrete block that several Drones had slammed themselves against in cover, but the moment the grenade hit the block it rolled backwards and stopped only when it was right in the middle of the ground separating Humans from Locust. At least one Gear had seen it and shouted the warning seconds before the grenade went off, not entirely enough time to get everyone under cover, but it was at least a decent heads-up that got most behind whatever was at hand._

_From the other side of the downtown street turned into a war-torn battlefield, Drones snarled and gurgled their jumbled mess of a language as hands clawed at eyes and ears to be rid of the horrid pain that agitated what seemed like every nerve ending. The light of the sun was disgusting enough as it was, but this, the flash grenades of the Humans that the Locust sought to eradicate was excruciating agony. Shaking their heads from side to side like irritated animals nipped at by pesky flies, the Locust slowly started to recover their sight and hearing, but not quick enough. The head of one exploded like a melon hit with the precise swing of a mallet, blood and brain matter blinding the brother beside it. In the frantic hurry to wipe away the mess and clear it's vision, the Drone fell prey to the lucky bullet of a Gear that was fired blindly from behind a barricade of burned-out cars. Caught in the throat by the bullet of a Lancer, the Drone wheezed with a bloody cough and groaned violently before hitting the ground face first._

_Behind the cover of a battered vehicle left to rot from rust and weather, Sgt. Marcus Fenix of Delta Squad let fly a string of surly words as he peeked out from behind his cover. Someone had picked off one of the two Drones closest to his position, and it hadn't been one of his men. The second Drone to go down had been taken out by Lancer fire, blind fire even, but the first one had been a clean head shot. Sniper fire if he wasn't mistaken, but as Marcus knew, there were no other squads in the area and he sure as hell didn't have a sniper on his team. Shaking the stray thoughts that were starting to enter his head, Marcus returned his focus on the battle he was in the middle of. Someone had thrown a frag from his side of the fray, the evidential plume of smoke and debris filling the air behind the enemy-line. And as the air quivered with the resounding explosion he heard the sharp crack of rifle gunfire ring above the dim chattering roar of Lancers._

**But this was nothing compared to a new threat... from below... an enemy that will force humanity to take their last inevitable steps...**

"_Control this Delta, come in." Marcus pressed two fingers against the Tac/Com piece in his ear, waiting for the static buzz of the incoming transmission. The battle was over, the Drones wasted and the Emergence Hole closed with the help of a well aimed frag thrown by Dom._

"_Control here Delta, reading you loud and clear." Anya's voice replied through a short spurt of static._

"_Locust presence has been cleared out of the area" Marcus returned, eyes squinting up at the brash light that streamed through the decaying buildings that attempted to still block out the sun. He scanned every possible inch of what he could deem as sniper territory, the highest elevation in the area was prime ground. There was absolutely no way to pinpoint a sniper's location, Marcus knew that, but yet he still scanned the surrounding area with narrowed eyes as Anya relayed new orders from Command."Copy that Control, we'll be there." Marcus acknowledged their new orders as he glanced away from the skyline of crippled and toppled buildings. "Anya, are there any other units in the area?"_

_There was a pause on the other end of the line before Anya's voice spoke through the small burst of static again. "Looks like Beta Squad is in the area, but they've already moved on west of your position."_

"_They have a sniper in their numbers?" Marcus questioned again._

_Another pause, as Anya went over the roster for who made up Beta Squad. "Negative Delta; Beta does not have any confirmed snipers on the team." She relayed the information back._

_Marcus frowned in response and then shook his head. "Thanks Control. Delta out." The link went dead as the connection ended. Hefting his Lancer up into both hands, Marcus gave a final glance about the area before turning to inform the rest of his squad to their next destination._

… **toward extinction.**

"_Holy shit! BRUMAK!" _

_The earth shuddered and groaned beneath the massive body of the 10,000 (and possibly plus) kilogram wieghing gargantuan monstrosity that lumbered its way up the street with jaws a gap and glistening. Its deafening roar sounded like something akin to two massive pieces of metal scrapping against one another in a low rumble that vibrated through the air. Delta Squad had barely made a decent amount of travel time from the last place they had been pinned down before the Brumak had appeared along with another wave of Locust Drones. As the squad of four men hit cover immediately, Marcus hit his Tac/Com and shouted above the roar of the exchanged fire from either side._

"_CONTROL, CONTACT BETA SQUAD! WE'RE PINNED DOWN BY A BRUMAK AND ENFORCEMENT DRONES! WE NE – !"_

_Marcus was cut off by the sudden bellow of the Brumak as the massive walking war weapon threw its long muscle and weapon heavy arms up over its head, its thick fingers groping at its helmet covered head. Something was incredibly strange about the whole thing, so much so that Marcus had stopped in the middle of his call for backup via the only other squad in the area. The Sergeant stared at the hollowing Brumak, utter confusion furrowing his brow as he watched the creature start thrashing its head about for all but four seconds before a rather furious explosion blistered from its uncovered muzzle. A spray of blood and matter flew through the air, the Brumak screamed... literally screamed as the front of its face was nearly blown off to the point of even going up beneath the helmet it wore._

"_Wow... what the hell just happened to that thing?" Dominic Santiago stared with rather wide eyes and the same look confusion on his face that Marcus bore._

"_Who cares!" Damon Baird broke in suddenly while reloading his Lancer with a new clip. "As long as that thing goes down, I don't care!" He shouted above the incoming fire that was still pouring in from the Locust side of the fight._

_A loud boisterous laugh lifted up even in the midst of their fight for survival, it rang almost as loud as the Lancer fire. "Whoo! Yeah baby!" Augustus "The Cole Train" Cole whooped as he popped up from behind the cement barricade he had tucked himself behind with the appearance of the Brumak. "Blow that bitch's face off! Haha!" He shouted while opening fire on the enemy Locust that were attempting push in on the squad._

_Marcus rolled his eyes before peeking out from behind cover to watch as the Brumak thrashed about, arms flailing in every direction as if trying to clobber the unseen enemy that had struck a rather deadly blow to it. Each erratic swing struck the side of a building on either hand of the street, punching through cement and reinforced steel as if they were cardboard and string. One building buckled as it was popped in an already weakened spot, the once six-story place of business became a pile of misshapen rubble as the Brumak continued its tantrum. The falling debris crushed several Drones, others were struck and knocked off their feet from the tsunami like wave of dust that blew up in a second from the demolition._

"_TAKE COVER!" Marcus bellowed as he threw himself down and up against the upturned hunk of street he and Dom had been forced behind at the start of the firefight._

_As the dust cloud rolled in towards Delta Squad, the high pitched whistle of something cutting through the air with a great amount of speed forced all four sets of eyes to turn upwards, blinking rapidly against the invading dust and grim that sought to blind their sight in the first place. None of them had seen it, but from the direction of the sound, they were relieved to know that it had passed over them into the direction of the Brumak and Drones. With vision poor, Delta still peeked out from behind cover with squinted eyes directed towards the seething Brumak as it grunted and snarled with its mangled face dripping untold fathoms of blood from the shredded laces of flesh and muscle that dangled from what hadn't been blown off. The behemoth seemed to calm for a moment, breathing heavy ragged breaths as it tried to get a sense of balance again only to have its nerves upended with the tell-tale whining tick of a grenade echoing deafly in its hearing._

_With utter terror mixed rage, the Brumak snarled in frustration before whipping about in a circle to locate the device that was seconds from detonation. However, its mission was utter failure as the last second ticked by in that eerie silence proceeding the following blast that thundered loudly through the battle ravaged streets. A long mournful wail lifted from the Brumak as it teetered on its legs from side to side, the eye lights on its helmet darkened as thick black smoke brewed up from beneath the metal in boiling clouds accented by the flowing rivers of crimson that poured down and sloshed across the dust covered pavement in a morbid puddle around its feet. The Drones that were still on their feet had all but ceased firing as they turned to stare wide-eyed and shocked as their main force of power against the humans they sought to slaughter, now gurgled its last breath before falling forward with the pull of gravity and the push of the massive weight that it carried upon its back in weaponry. A few were far to dumbfounded at what they were seeing to register that fact that the hulking mass of firepower and muscle was now coming down upon them until it was too late to scramble away._

_There was a dull thud that rocked the ground in the wake of impact, and for a few unearthly quiet seconds, neither side moved to continue its battle for supremacy (and in the case of the Gears, survival). It wasn't until Cole's rumbling voice carried up from building laughter into an all out victory cry that the fighting resumed. With the Brumak dead, the upper hand now rested with the Gears of Delta Squad that let loose a hellstorm of Lancer fire and bolo grenades that wiped out of the remaining Locust rather easily._

_Marcus grunted as he pushed himself out from cover and took a step forward as the last Drone hit the street pavement. "The hell Beta ain't got a sniper on their team." _


	2. Their Last Stand Together

**ACT 1: Sniper**

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**Chapter One**

**Their Last Stand Together**

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_He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious. - _**Sun Tzu, **_**The Art of War**_

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_72 Hours Prior..._

There's only one word that could ever truly describe the sound a dying man makes in his last torturous moments of life before the pass completely, and he's left on a ravaged battlefield that shows now mercy or pity for his valiant fight – _unearthly_. That sound never got easier to hear or ignore, even with sight focused through the small lens of a rifle mounted scope, crosshairs lined up over the direct center of an enemy's forehead. The loud crack of the rifle going off could never drown the screams out, even with the thunder of several other Lancers roaring only feet away. And there's nothing else in the world that can rival it; send a chill down your spine and force you to come to grips with your own mortality than that scream in the midst of all out blood-stained battle.

A fine spray of crimson puffed into the air only milliseconds after the bullet found its mark and turned the fully formed and functioning head of a Locust Drone into spattered mush that now either covered the ground or flecked the faces and armor of its 'brothers'. The sound of the rifle's reload was almost deafening in the ears of the soldier behind it as the reticle lined up another target that seemed far too keen on popping up and down from behind cover to spray sporadic bursts on the Gears_. _The Drone was predictable, far too predictable in fact as the soldier behind the rifle counted three seconds beneath their breath before squeezing the trigger. In the second it took for the Drone to stand up in a half-crouch from its source of cover, the bullet drilled its way through the spot right between the Drone's eyes. Another head-shot, and another grub down.

"Ah fuck!"

The wail of the downed and rapidly bleeding Gear howled up above the din of gunfire, blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth as he coughed and sputtered to be rid of the metallic taste that only further pushed him into a sense of greater panic. Both of his heavily gloved hands were pressing down upon his upper thigh the best they could, blood seeping through his fingers in streams that were coming far to quickly to be anything but a horrific sign of extensive damage. Stark terror had engraved itself upon the battle-worn and scared face of the Gear, eyes wide and nostrils flaring as he sucked in ragged breaths before choking with a sputter as blood continued to foam up the back of his throat. It had been a one in a million shot that hit target, the bullet finding its way perfectly between the plates of armor that were meant to protect the now dying Gear. The femoral artery had been hit, the vein having immediately retracted up towards the pelvis the split-second it was severed. Death by cause of exsanguination was imminent.

His wailing howls of terror were not unnoticed by his comrades, his 'brothers in arms', that were focused on the enemy with Lancers firing a steady feed of lead into the Locust Horde that had them pinned. The sudden spurt of a thin jet stream of crimson didn't go unnoticed either as the _GEAR _continued fervently to apply as much pressure as possible to the wound. A hand came down and took a firm hold of the armored breastplates' collar, and with a sudden show of battle-induced strength, the hand gave a great jerk and hauled the nearly flatGear up into a sitting position against the concrete barricade. A helmet enshrouded face leveled with that of the wounded Gear, the eerie glow of the blue optics in the helmet reflected nothing back to the dying man.

"It won't stop bleeding!" He shouted, the cold vice-like grip of panic having long since set in as he felt his body starting to grow weaker with every passing second. "Hawx! I don't know what to do!"

The hand of the helmet-wearing_ Gear _yanked him forward a bit, putting a space between his armored back and the concrete barricade for a few seconds. The audible click of the helmet's outside channels of its built in Tac/Com went unheard, but the static-filled and distorted voice of the Gearinside of the helmet was heard as plain as day, although shouted and raised in volume to be heard. _"KR's are inbound for an EVAC! You have got to keep calm Riviera!" _

The wounded Gear, thirty-six year old Ricardo Riviera of Omega Squad, shook his head vigorously in response to the information coming from his comrade. "No pilot in his right mind would fly a fucking EVAC into this place!" He shouted, face contorting into a mask of twisted pain as a white hot fire shot up through his leg. Both hands clamped and squeezed at the burning source that throbbed beneath his thigh plate, blood spurting upwards in small streams through whatever space it could find in between his fingers. "Fuck!"

There was a restrained jerking motion forced back by the Gear called Hawx, the attempt to dodge being hit with Riviera's blood flattened immediately as the instinct to aid in the effort of staving off death for as long as possible until the King Ravens arrived to lift the mixed squad out of what had quickly escalated into 'hot zone'. The hand that had been keeping a hold on Riviera's breastplate armor had come off and was now firmly pressing down on top of the Gears own two hands that were slipping off the now blood slicked plates. Hawxs' other hand held a Longshot rifle steady on his bent knee, and had been after several head shots on the enemy allowed him time to duck down behind cover.

"_Omega, this is KR-Six Six, we are inbound on your position; ETA in three!"_

The chopper pilot's call came in a gurgled mess of static that signaled several pairs of eyes to turn upwards towards the grey-colored sky that was the grim backdrop to the fight for survival. The black body of the King Raven was nowhere in sight yet, but the chopping whirl of its blades could be heard even in the midst of the firefight. The sound was something akin to that of the sweet lullaby of angels to the ears of the Gears even as they turned their attention back to the Locust Horde that were pressing towards them.

"HAWX! WE NEED YOU TO GET UP ON HIGHER GROUND!" The booming order came from a grizzled looking_ Gear _about fifteen feet down the right side of the barricade. Scars littered both of his bare arms alongside the well worn ink that colored his already leathered brown skin. With a close cropped shock of brilliant white hair and thick mutton-chop sideburns that ran along his jawline and connecting with his mustache, Lieutenant Edgar 'Griz' Butler was big burly intimidating man. Popping up momentarily, he let loose a hailstorm of Lancer gunfire into a Drone that had dodged out from behind the car shell it took cover behind. All ten rounds fired hit their target and laid out the grub in a pool of its own blood where it twitched from damage suffered at its head and died. Dropping back behind cover, the lieutenant swiveled the stumpy remains of a well chewed cigar into the very right corner of his mouth as he turned his dark gaze towards Hawx and the downed Riviera. "Ah, shit." He grumbled before hoisting himself up into a crouch and scrambled towards the pair.

Hawx had already turned his attention back out towards the battle, Riviera's Lancer in hand and letting loose with the automatic fire; a hand still helping to keep pressure on Riviera's wound the best he could. Riviera was looking far paler than he had been not more than two minutes ago, his breathing was much more labored and coming in ragged inhales as coughed up blood and spat it out weakly.

Several shots from the Locust forces pinged off the barricade and barely missed hitting Griz in the head before he slammed sideways up against the concrete at Riviera's side. "What the fuck happened to you?" He drawled while lifting his Lancer and sending a squeeze of blindfire into the grubs.

"_Femoral artery was hit, or at least that's what it looks like with all the blood." _Hawx grunted through his helmet's Tac Com while popping off several rounds as a Drone attempted to break cover in the hopes of lobbing a grenade in their direction. Even without the aid of the Longshot's scope, Hawx nicked the grenade and forced it into an explosion that ripped the Drone's arm from its body and blew away almost all of its face. _"We've got to get him to the EVAC site ASAP!"_

Griz muttered under his breath as he wiped a hand across his brow to be rid of the sweat before it dripped down to sting his eyes. Looking passed Hawx, Griz spotted two of his own squad reloading their weapons and quickly formulated a plan. "Alright! Hawx, get your ass up high and start picking these fuckers off; JACKSON! POTTER! GET YOUR ASSES OVER HERE!" The man had a voice that needed no help from anything that could amplify it.

There was a brief moment of hesitation on the part of Hawx as his orders meant he would have to take away the extra pressure he had been applying to his squad mate's wound. Before Hawx could even register what was happening, the helmet wearing Gear was shoved with authority in the shoulder as Griz slapped his own bare hands down in Hawxs' place. He leveled his narrowed gaze on Hawx, giving no room for argument to whatever thought of protest he had. Without a word, Hawx stiffly nodded while laying down Riviera's Lancer and grabbed his Longshot. Swinging the weapon around to attach it to the magnetic clamp on the back of his armor, Hawx stayed low as he pushed himself up into a crouch and hustled back away from the barricade.

The streets of the cities the Gears often found themselves fighting through against the Locust Horde, were never short of cover in every form available to a soldier with a gun. The blown-out fronts of the various buildings that lined the upturned and shattered streets acted as rear guards for the pinned _GEAR_s, but they were also the greatest playground available to a sniper. While the insides of what had been a multi-storied business building were a thrashed mess of rubble, that was hardly a challenge for someone like Hawx, one of the smaller sized Gears operating in Grizs' Omega Squad. A far slimmer build and less bulky armor than his squad mates, Hawx easily picked his way through the mess that acted as an obstacle course towards prime ground high above on what was left of the buildings' roof. Weaving in and out through fallen timbers and walls, Hawx almost sprinted up the weakened stairs and slowed only when he reached the roof access.

The sounds of the battle outside were muffled but it could still be heard with all its gunfire, explosions, and curses mixing its massive chaotic disorder into one surge of noise that flooded through the small doorway as Hawx slammed shoulder into the locked flimsy metal door. With a loud but unheard _bang! _the door flew open and slammed against the brick wall behind it. The second he was running across the roof, Hawx was yanking the Longshot off his back and crouching low to near level with the rise of the roof lip.

"_KR-Six Six this is Omega Squad; we need an immediate EVAC on a man down!"_

"_Understood Omega, we are inbound on your position but cannot touch down until hotzone is nulled."_

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me!" Corporal Jameson Potter growled as his Tac/Com buzzed with the chatter between the chopper pilot and Griz. "What the hell do they expect us to do?! We're low on ammo, and we've got injured Gears!" The redheaded corporal nearly snarled as he pulled the trigger of his Lancer to pump lead into the several Locust Drones that were looking to try a flanking attempt.

Griz growled under his breath as he multi-tasked between fighting the Drones and applying pressure to Riviera's leg, swearing in response to the negative feedback he was getting from the KR pilot. A brief moment of relief would soon appear as he heard the cracking snap of a rifle shot echo sharply above their heads and the gutter squawk of some Drone bellowing - _"SNIPER!" _- as one of its own hit the ground without a head. "About fucking time that kid got up there."

"I-It's a-all good s-sir!" Riviera choked out in a stutter coated in blood that spattered from his mouth as he spoke up. "H-Hawx is gonna null the hotzone, h-he can make the i-impossible happen!" The normally tanned Latino was horridly pale now, a forced grin straining his expression as his breathing was becoming ragged and strained.

Another crack from the rifle began to work its magic in boosting the morale of the Gears fighting beneath the thin looming shadow of the building at their backs. Fatigue was starting to eat away at them, but somehow the echoing cracks of the rifle firing in on the enemy pushed up a new resource of adrenaline from the bottom of their barrels. Gritting their teeth, the Gears of Omega Squad dug in and opened up a line of fire the tore through several unfortunate Drones that were ducking out from behind cover. As the enemy line began to weaken, Griz dropped back behind the barricade and nearly roared into his Tac/Com.

"KR-SIX SIX, WE'RE PULLING BACK FROM THE NULLING HOTZONE! WE NEED AN EVAC **NOW!!**"

"_Roger that Omega; pull back behind the building you're in front of, we are landing now!"_

"About fucking time!" Jackson bellowed while pulling his last frag grenade from the chain loop on his vest and yanked the pin as he swung it around several times before lobbing it through a high arc towards the enemy barricade. "Potter! Help me with Riviera, we're getting him to the King Raven first!" The dark skinned Sergeant slammed an open palm against his buddy's back before scrambling towards Griz and the wounded Riviera.

"_EMERGENCE HOLE!" _Hawxs' voice cut in across all lines.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Griz snarled while daring a peek out from behind the barricade and swore through every four-letter word he knew and then some as he caught sight of the tell-tale dust cloud rising from across the street. "Hawx, pick 'em off! We're getting Riviera to the landing King Raven! Pull back once we're all behind the building!" Griz hollered into his Tac/Com and didn't wait for a reply from the squad's sniper as he gestured harshly for Jackson and Potter to grab Riviera and retreat.

No one had to be told twice on the retreat as they began tactically backing up from the barricade quickly before the new line of fire from the Locust began ripping into the concrete blocks. Several of the older Gears waited at the barricade, providing cover fire as the wounded and those helping the wounded back pedaled towards the rear of the building behind them. It didn't take more than a few seconds before they were pulling back as well, popping shots at anything that looked like a Drone's head as they stayed low in a crouch. The crack of Hawxs' sniper rifle continued to sound above the Gears, picking off anything and everything the smaller Gear could get his crosshairs over, the main focus being the Drones jumping up out of the Emergence Hole.

Another crack and the grey and red spray of a Drone's exploding head back washed over the following Drone that had been following right behind the first one. Blinded temporarily, the Drone stopped in mid-stride and began wiping at its face furiously with its free hand to free its sight, a waste of time really as its own head had a bullet bore its way through its right eye and out the back of its head. Two steps and the Drone dropped dead face first into the dust and dirt covered street. It's fall was overlooked as others of its own kind as they rushed passed and dove for cover with Hammerbursts firing after the retreating Gears.

"_Hustle up! They're still coming!" _

The muffled _whomp_ of the King Raven's blades chopped through the thick air, its black and scuffed up body a blurred figure in the squinted eyes of the _GEAR_s that sprinted for it as fast as their heavily weighed down bodies would allow. Hawxs' voice through the Tac Com, though static ridden and distorted, only succeed in pushing them forward faster. Ahead of the rest of Omega Squad, Potter and Jackson carried the groaning and wheezing Riviera who let out a howl as an intense amount of pain shot up his leg from the jostling run he was being pushed through. Salvation was in sight though, several crew members of KR-66 were standing outside of the chopper ready to help the men of Omega Squad into the chopper. They were close; close to leaving behind the battlefield, close to being swept out of harm's way, close to returning to Jacinto. There was nothing that could deter them from what was before them, the King Raven was the only thing they had their sights locked on and tunnel-visioned.

"_...um...!" _Static choked the Tac/Com lines in distorted fuzz. _"...ak!!" _It was if the voice trying to push through was being muffled by hands, it was horribly distorted and almost unheard through the choking fuzz. _"BRU...!!...." _ Static. Their own heavy breathing. The thudding _whomp _of the chopper blades. The pounding pulse of their heart beat. The heavy tread of their running steps. _"**BRUMAK!!**"_

The scream cut through the static like a bomb, shattering the barrier that had attempted to bar the message from getting through to the retreating Gears and the chopper pilots. It ripped into their ears like an explosion, and all at the same time the world suddenly shuddered beneath their feet in one massive surge that held the same feeling as carpet being yanked out from under them. The bellowing roar of the monstrous war weapon that the Locust had engineered thrummed through the air and sent a chill through the blood of every_ Gear. _The crew of the King Raven were pointing frantically behind the Gears, the hollers and screams of full grown men shattered the buzzing static on the Tac/Com, and before any of them knew how close the Brumak was... the world exploded about them before their vision was lost and everything went black.


	3. The Pit of Ruin

**Chapter Two**

**The Pit of Ruin**

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"_Brief and powerless is man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark." _- **Bertrand Russell, **_**Mysticism and Logic**_

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"_At fifteen hundred hours, all forms of contact with both Omega Squad and KR-Six Six were lost. The last known transmission, although distorted, confirmed that there was an ambush. From the end of the transmission, we can at least confirm that there was also a Brumak in the area that Omega Squad was being evacuated from. While not entirely confirmed, the members of Omega Squad and the crew of KR-Six Six are considered KIA until otherwise reported differently. Let us all remember the brave sacrifice that our brothers in arms have made in the name of humanity's survival against the Locust Horde."_

The male voice coming in over the tac/com lines of the COG soldiers out on the field was scratchy and fuzzed with short bursts of static. The mild interruption caused a few to turn their gazes skyward, their train of thought revolving no longer around the incoming transmission from Jacinto HQ, but towards the possibility of Nemacyst inking the sky. While the transmission from Jacinto HQ continued on, so did the work of the Gears out in the field as they trudged on with their mission of saving what remained of humanity from the onslaught of the Locust Horde.

Beta Squad's commanding Sergeant – Richard Bartlet – sat hunched forward on his seat of a battered piece of concrete that had been blown from a building, his gaze focused on the JACK that hovered before him with flip screen alight and bearing an overview image map of the area. Around the Sergeant, his squad members were taking a moment to enjoy the brief pause in their grueling hike towards Jacinto HQ, legs stretched out and weapons propped up at a hands' reach away. They knew better, even in the scarce moments of peace that they found on the battlefield, than to have their weapons out of reach. While they took the moment to rest, the Gears of Beta Squad were visibly on edge as they kept eyes trained either on the sky or on the random intersecting junctions that crossed paths with their own location. The transmission being fed across the Tac/Com was the main cause of their unease as they listened to the grim announcement that confirmed what Beta themselves suspected after hearing the massive explosions erupt almost two miles from their own position.

While their orders to head back to Jacinto still stood, Sgt. Bartlet wasn't about to turn a blind eye from what he and his squad had partially witnessed. Even though they weren't tapped into Omega's Tac/Com signal, the violence and ferocity in the explosions that they had seen could only be summed up to the involvement of a Brumak in the fray. Not many survived the onslaught of a Brumak, especially when caught off-guard and ambushed. Although well aware of this, and knowing they had been ordered to return to HQ, Sgt. Bartlet was already working out an alternate route that would swing them back around to Omega's last position and search for survivors... or at least recover the COG tags of then fallen if they hadn't been stripped by the Locust.

"Hey, Sarge," One of the men sitting closest to Bartlet spoke up suddenly even though he stared off towards the distant plume of grey black smoke that was still rising from the earth. "You really think anyone survived out there?" His question pulled the attention of the other two men in the squad, eyes no longer on the sky or streets as they stared at their sergeant, waiting for an answer to their own unspoken questions.

The JACK bot blipped a few times in a manner of its own pattern of speech as its flip screen locked back into place against its front panel as though the handy tool was questioning the sergeant as well on the matter. Rubbing a thick hand across the back of his well tanned leathery neck, Sgt. Bartlet exhaled a long breath through his nose before lifting his head to meet the three pairs of eyes that stared back at him. "Who the fuck knows." He muttered while glancing off at the lingering stain of smoke that stuck out against the sunset colored sky like some morbid beacon. "But even still, if there aren't any survivors, the least we can do is retrieve their COG tags and make sure that they are remembered." He pointed out gruffly while standing from his seat on the concrete block and picked up his Lancer that sat leaning against the lip of the block. "Let's get moving men, we've got a lot of ground to cover before night hits."

With merely a nod from their heads, the three men of Beta Squad were up on their feet, Lancers clicking with a reload as they prepared to start a new hike towards what was more than likely the resting ground of their fellow comrades. The JACK bot vanished from sight as Beta Squad moved out, it cloaking shield activating to keep it unseen by enemy eyes. There was the slim possibility that the crew of KR-66 and Omega Squad could still be alive out there, albeit more than likely injured or unable to move at this point, but there was still that small window of possibility in the eyes of the sergeant as he took point.

The two mile hike through the demolished city was uneventful for the most part, which was a rarity for the Gears who were used to having to duck out from one piece of cover and dashing to another. While they didn't walk openly down the middle of the rubble littered streets, they did stick closely to the farthest part of the sidewalks and often weaved into the blown out building fronts, eyes trained on every possible opening for a Locust ambush. Every once in a while their eyes would turn upwards towards the sky to search for the pulsating balloon like bodies of Nemacyst. The closer Beta Squad got to the wafting stream of black smoke the more they could smell the horrid stench of burning rubber and other things they didn't even dare begin to make out. The smells became near overwhelming as Beta finally set foot upon the scorched earth, their eyes slightly wider as they stared at the twisted carnage that lay before them.

What could be made out as the mangled body of the King Raven lay misshapen and overturned at the basic center of what could only be described as a low dent in the earth. There were several small fires still licking away at the burnt out blackened hull, the source of the black and grey smoke that continued to rise up into the air. Not more than three feet from Beta sat one of the helicopter's blade, blackened and still smoking even long after the battle that had snapped it clean from the King Raven. Sergeant Bartlet shook his head as he stared across the ravaged piece of land, the pitch colored scorch marks indicating that a Brumak had to have been involved like the outgoing report from HQ had pointed out as a possibility.

"There's no way in hell anyone survived this." One of the men mumbled while walking forward towards the remnants of KR-66, waving a hand before his face as the smell wafting in was horrid. Towards the front of the helicopter the Gearspotted several charred objects that lay scattered about in an odd sort of formation. He groaned inwardly as he got closer and recognized the objects as being human at one point in time. "Hey!" He paused and glanced back over his shoulder at the rest of his squad that was starting to fan out now and check the area, "I found Omega!"

"All of 'em?" Bartlet barked back in question as he started towards the King Raven.

Corporal Zach Evans nodded stiffly as he turned to stare down at what remained of Omega Squad. "Yeah, looks like it." He grunted roughly while continuing forward to crouch down beside the closest body and carefully turn the corpse over.

Sergeant Bartlet swore under his breath while running a hand through his close cut black hair. "Shit." He knew better than to hold on to the very unlikely hope that Omega had survived whatever had happened to them, but there was still that small fraction of his being that had hoped for the best and that they would at least find the squad battered rather than dead. Glancing at the rest of his own squad, Bartlet exhaled a gruff sigh before issuing his next order, "Collect their COG tags." There was a flickering waver in his voice for a split second before he continued on, "We need to get back to Jacinto."

A few of the other men mumbled under their breath as they each moved to one of their fallen comrades and carefully searched their bodies for their COG tags. It would be Corporal Evans who after gathering the COG tags off the body before him who would notice something was a bit off about the number of bodies that were laid out across the earth riddled with bullets and charred to a crisp. Scratching the back of his head, Evans started to think back over the names of the men he knew belonged to Omega Squad and then glanced around again, only to then furrow his brow deeply.

"Sarge!" Evans spun about on his heel and stood quickly, eyes widening a bit as realization hit him. "Hey, Sarge! How many guys are in Omega?!" His rather out of nowhere question earned him a rather puzzled and confused look from his sergeant. Shaking his head slightly, Evans pointed out the number of bodies that were on the ground. "There's only four of 'em here. If I remember correctly, there's supposed to be five guys in Omega, one of 'em being the smallest and their sniper!"

Everyone stilled immediately, eyes turning almost at the same time to stare at Evans as the brunette haired corporal glanced about the area, scanning for the missing Gearof Omega Squad. As if cued by this sudden revelation, the rubble that blocked the half dilapidated building that hovered off in the northwest corner of the area started to move as if something were pushing against it. The sound and movement had Beta Squad turning all at the same time with Lancers lifted and aimed. The rubble continued to move, a few bits here and there giving way until finally a rather large piece toppled forward and struck the ground with a dull thud. Bartlet glanced at his men from the corner of his eye as he caught them all tensing and heard the sound of their Lancers switching to auto fire. They were ready for a fight, especially if it happened to be a Locust left behind to scout the area.

Another piece of rubble from the top of the pile toppled, striking the first piece that had fallen and then rolled off to the side as the pile started to quiver from a force being applied on the other side. The trigger fingers of each _GEAR_ twitched as they took a simultaneous step back, preparing themselves for a possible gunfight that was about to explode in the next three seconds as more of the debris in the pile fell to create an odd sort of clearing at the top. Sergeant Bartlet squinted at the exposed hole in the rubble pile, his body tensing momentarily as he saw movement through the gap only to then suddenly relax to the point where he dropped his Lancer to his side. He exhaled a heavy breath before suddenly walking forward towards the thrashed building, earning himself the confused stares of his men who were still holding their Lancers high at the ready.

The rubble continued to shift and convulse as it was pushed, a low distorted grunt muttered up from behind the mess that choked off the only possible exit from the mess that had been left by the Brumak attack. The scraping sound of boot soles sliding across hard ground echoed throughout the massive dark cave that the building had become in its collapse. Beneath the cover of the helmet that not only covered the head, but also the face, teeth ground in response to not only frustration but the brutal searing pain that shot through every nerve ending that radiated out from beneath the cracked and blood covered shoulder armor. The glow of the blue optics situated on the helmet had dimmed considerably, flickering every ten seconds or so in an odd sputter.

"You've gotta be fuck'n kidding me!" Sergeant Bartlet's voice barked through the gap in the rubble, dark eyes a bit wider than they normally ever were. "You have got to be one of the luckiest sons of bitches that I have ever met in my life." He shook his head before glancing back over his shoulder and motioning for his men to move forward and start digging out the trapped Gear. Looking back in through the gap, Bartlet felt his mouth twitch just the slightest in an upwards motion. "What's your name soldier?"

"_Hawx." _Static scratched across the outside communication link of the helmet, distorting the voice of the surviving sniper trapped behind the rubble. _"You have no idea how glad I am to see you guys."_ Something that sounded like a chuckled broke across the com link at the end of the sentence as Hawx shook his head in a sort of disbelief.

Bartlet grunted a short chuckle before attaching his Lancer to his back where the magnetic clamp held it secured in place as he started to heft the large chunks of building concrete alongside his men. "Hey, Hawx, you might wanna move back a step or two!" The sergeant barked as he notice the shift in the pile's mass as the bigger pieces were being pulled away. The sniper did as he was told, albeit with a slight limp to his step as a backslide of smaller debris started to cascade inward, a few decent sized pieces slipping from their places and bouncing as they rolled off in different directions.

It didn't take long before the front of the rubble pile caved forward, forcing the Gears on the outside to take a few steps backwards in order to avoid being pelted by the rubble. Kicking aside a few of the stubborn pieces that still pestered the now much larger gap in the rubble, Hawx placed a misstep and stumbled forward out from behind the barricade that had trapped him. Even though the sniper's armor was a heavily modified version of the standard Gears' armor, far lighter and flexible to allow the sniper a greater range of motion, the weight was still enough to knock the tired and beaten Gearoff balance. Whatever fall would have occurred for Hawx was instantly neutralized as the sniper's upper bicep was gripped suddenly and a swift tug pulled the soldier into a solid standing position alongside one of the Gears. Muttering a thanks, Hawx shifted his weight before standing as tall as possible but wincing beneath the cover his helmet from the rather sharp pain that shot up through him at that moment.

"Were you the only survivor?" Evans pipped up suddenly, voicing the question that ate away at the rest of them and had yet to be spoken out loud.

An odd sounding noise passed through the outside comlink of the helmet that was close to the description of a ragged exhale. _"Unfortunately, I am. I was set up in a cover position at the top of the building while the rest of the squad pulled back for an EVAC. We were ambushed by a Brumak seconds into our EVAC from the area." _Hawx paused a moment and rolled his left shoulder as the joint felt incredibly stiff with an odd pinch that was incredibly uncomfortable. _"The King Raven was hit first; the second it exploded it was like all hell was unleashed. The damn thing slammed through the area with weapons hot, it sideswiped the building I was set up on and caved it inward."_

"Good lord." The Gear that had helped Hawx maintain his balance let out a low whistle as he shook his head. "Like Sarge said, you are probably the luckiest son of a bitch we've ever met Hawx. That building looks like it was at least seven stories tall, and with a Brumak sideswiping it... damn boy, I dunno how you survived that."

"No shit!" Another Gear stated while glancing back at the building that Hawx had apparently survived the collapse of. "What'd you do, spread-eagle and hold on for dear life?"

Hawx chuckled slightly from behind his helmet, _"Something like that. I don't recommend trying it out for yourself though. It's not a ride you wanna participate it in willingly or unwillingly." _

Bartlet shook his head as he ran a hand through his sweat heavy hair, "I don't wanna sound like a complete asshole, but since Hawx here is the only survivor and the rest of 'em are dead, we've gotta get the fuck out of here and head back to Jacinto ASAP." He grumbled while motioning with a wave of his Lancer for everyone to start moving as he turned, pivoting on the heel of his boot only to pause midway through his turn. "Hawx, you good to go?" He looked back at the sniper who was now holding his own without the aid of the other Gear.

"_Yeah, I'm good to go Sarge."_ Hawx replied while adjusting the manner in which the Longshot rifle was sitting on his back.

Without another word, Sergeant Bartlet nodded stiffly before turning entirely and taking the lead as his men and Hawx fell in step beside and behind him.


	4. Welcome to Beta Squad

**Chapter Four**

**Welcome to Beta Squad**

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"_It's not what I believe. It's what I know." - _**Garnier De Naplouse, **_**Assassin's Creed**_

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Corporal Evans slowed down the steady pace that had been keeping him up at the rear of his squad, brow lifting as he stopped completely to look back over his shoulder. While he wasn't alone on the rear of the squad – the surviving sniper of Omega Squad having taken position with him – he was now. He scratched the back of his head as he noticed that the sniper had unclipped the enviro-seals on his helmet and was now pushing it up with the heel of his palm. "Hey, Hawx! You okay?"

Pushing up the protective headpiece, Hawx grumbled something as his chin and mouth appeared from beneath the helmet's all consuming coverage. A few harsh sounds escaped the sniper before he spat out a rather unsightly mixture of saliva and blood that hit the busted concrete of the city sidewalk in a small spatter. The bitter coppery flavor that assaulted the sniper's sense of taste wasn't anything that hadn't been experienced before, but that still didn't keep Hawx from grimacing slightly as he wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. Shaking his head slightly, Hawx waved Evans off as he yanked his helmet back down and waited for the hissing click of the enviro-seal. _"I'm fine." _The sniper's voice scratched out through the outside tac/com of his helmet as he readjusted himself slightly and turned to catch up.

Evans lifted a thick brow with a slight air of being unconvinced that the sniper was "_just fine_" as he waited for the smaller Gear to catch up to his position behind the rest of the squad; turning to continue on as Hawx stepped up beside him a second later. The corporal's thoughts started to slowly whirl within his head as they walked after their squad. Even though he had been at a decent distance from Hawx, Evans had still spotted what he thought looked like a rather decent sized – but old looking – scar that made its jagged way up from beneath the left side of the chin before disappearing beneath the partially lifted helmet. Scars weren't anything new to the corporal, hell he had his own decent share of the marks left behind after every battle that took him through hell and back with his squad mates. But there was something about the fact that a helmet-wearing sniper bore a rather nasty looking scar on his _face_, that was slowly starting to gnaw at the corporal's curiosity.

While his mouth had dropped open to begin asking the question, Evans found it snapping shut as a shout rang up from the front of the group and the hand-signal for a halt was thrown up almost immediately. Two seconds later the signal to take cover came and had the entire body of Beta Squad slamming their backs against cement, brick, charred metal; whatever they could find as a means of cover. Evans and Hawx ducked down behind the corner of a bombed out building, both having detached their main weapon from the magnetic clamp on their backs and holding them at the ready as they waited for further instructions from the front. Being the one at the edge of the corner, Evans pressed his shoulder into the unmoving concrete to lean out and peer around the corner. He spotted Myles and Runnels ahead and off to the far right, tucked tight against the blacked body of a mangled car, and ahead of them Sergeant Bartlet leaned out passed the last corner of the street to get a view of the area ahead.

"Fuck, I hate waiting like this." Evans muttered under his breath as he pulled back and rested his back against the side of the building. "Never knowing whats ahead until it's almost too late." Irritation was evident in the tone of his voice as he closed his eyes for a moment and inhaled a ragged breath, exhaling with a grunt as he opened his eyes again.

"_Bartlet sent JACK ahead." _Hawx pointed out while glancing down at the Gear, intel from JACK feeding into the HUD system of the helmet, _"We'll know soon enough what's going on ahead of us."_

Evans glanced up at the faceless helmet that stared down at him, unblinking and without the slightest trace of expression to let him know what the sniper was thinking. There was an odd sort of placid calm to the voice that spoke out through the tac/com, the distinctive rasp coming through making Hawx sound almost bored at times when he spoke. "Can your helmet," He pointed in gesture towards the sniper's headgear, "Patch into JACK for a real time feed?"

"_It's how I knew that it was sent ahead." _Hawx replied automatically, glowing blue optics unblinking as they just stared at the corporal. _"If you're inquiring as to whether or not the actual optic feed can be accessed through my helmet's systems; then yes, I can do that." _The sniper's head turned slightly towards the direction in which Bartlet was positioned even though the building wall was in the way. There was a thirty second pause of silence that had Evans shifting nervously on his feet as he waited in his crouched position. There was a small series of rapid clicks that came from Hawxs' tac/com before the sniper finally spoke up, _"Street's empty so far, lots of debris but nothing out of the ordinary. Give it another minute and we should get the all clear to move ahead."_

Shaking his head, Evans peered out around the corner again with his gaze fixated on his sergeant. "When we get back to Jacinto, I'm gonna put in for one of 'em helmets." He muttered.

"_It's not for everyone. I think you'd be surprised at how many people feel suffocated with these things on their heads after the enviro-seal locks you in. The HUD system itself can get a bit overwhelming at first, I've heard about guys vomiting on their first time using it."_ Hawx pointed out the slight con to the helmet that was on his head.

Evans snorted while watching for the signal from Bartlet, "Fuck that shit." He could only imagine the experience of having thrown up within your own helmet that was shut tight until the seal was broken. "I'll just stick to my own eyes and ears." He tensed suddenly as he caught sight of Bartlet's fist rising back into the air, calling for them to hold position. "Hawx, what the fuck is going on up there?" Evans didn't even chance a look over his shoulder.

Hawx was silent a moment before tilting his head ever so slightly. _"JACK's stopped, but nothings being picked up on the scanners..." _The sniper trailed off as something seemed to suddenly catch his attention, head cocking to the right as if listening to something interesting before snapping to attention as the ground started to rumble beneath their feet in a mild vibration.

The thin layer of dust that seemed to cover everything started to ripple with the tremor, its own movement dying as soon the tremor itself did. An eerie silence ensued, blanketing the street that Beta Squad now looked about in a somewhat startled manner. None of the five fully armored men dared to move any more than the mere turn of their eyes or the slightest inclination of their head as they waited. They were all ready to chalk the tremor up to just the collapse of some nearby building that had finally buckled under the unstable conditions it had been left in after whatever hell tore through the streets; however a second tremor that rocked the ground triggered a small trilling alarm to sound for all but two seconds within Hawxs' helmet.

Inside that strange helmet, the HUD system screens were glittering with the bright lime green statistics that scrawled and winked in various grid styles, feeding information to a pair of unblinking eyes that moved minutely from left to right in quick darting motions. Streamed real-time information from JACK scrawled down the left side of the helmet's HUD screen, brief bursts of outside images of the street far out of sight range flickering in every few seconds. _Shit. _Hawxs' bottom lip found itself snagged between teeth as one of the images fed in by JACK remained up as the little bot zoomed in on a rising plume of dust that was blossoming up from behind a barricade of upturned and mangled cars further down the street. The tac/com line for Beta Squad crackled as it opened, _"Emergence Hole!"_

The simultaneous click of Lancers locking and loading resounded deafly through the street as the Gears prepared for battle. Bartlet shot a free fist into the air and punched it forward as he signaled for his men to break cover and stack up behind his current position. Being the closest to the sergeant, Myles and Runnels dashed out from behind the car they had been shoulder slammed against and slid to a halt behind Bartlet with Lancers at the ready. Bartlet peered out from behind the corner of the building, eyes squinting to narrow his gaze on the dust cloud he could see thinning in the air with ears sensitive to the slightest sound he could pinpoint as belonging to a Locust Drone.

"Fuck my life." Evans grumbled while edging out slowly from cover, head turning briefly over his shoulder to note the sniper's current position was now no longer anywhere near him. Nearly stumbling in his next step as he reeled himself backwards, Evans spun about and stared after the smaller Gear as he disappeared down what remained of a narrow alleyway. "Where the hell is he going?!" The corporal snarled aloud in question before shaking his head roughly and ran off to join up with his squad mates. _The fuck's he thinking? Flanking the Locust on his own?! _Evans ran the possible answers through his head as he slammed up against the brick wall of the next building, nodding minutely at the half glance Runnels shot him from over the shoulder. _Flanking them is a good idea, fucking brilliant even, but on his own? Fuck, I should have followed after him._ A disgruntled groan escaped Evans as he mentally chastised himself.

"Hey! Where's Hawx?!" Myles voice suddenly picked up above the roaring din of Locust gunfire, gaining the redheaded Private a double-take from the corporal one person behind him.

"Flanking the enemy!" Evans shot back while glancing up quickly to catch sight of his sergeant pulling back behind the corner.

"We're pinned; there's too much heavy fire for us to pull cover and spread out!" Bartlet shouted to his men, dark eyes flickering to each face and noting the grim looks the pulled across them. His gaze settled on Evans as he noticed the lack of sniper presence in their midst. Immediately his brows furrowed as he gave the corporal a questioning glare, the mere shake of the corporal's head and side nod into the general direction of where the Locust had taken up position was all the answer Bartlet needed. "For fuck's sake, the guy barely survived a fucking Brumak attack." Bartlet grumbled under his breath, but meant his comment as a sort of recognition to the small Gears' inability to sit anything out and act on trained instinct. Tapping two fingers to the tac/com piece he had in his ear, Bartlet heard the click of the channel opening, "Hawx, where you at?"

"_Setting up position above the enemy sir. We've got at least twelve Drones armed with Hammerburst Assaults and one Theron Guard with a Torque._" There was a muffled sound of something shuffled and moved about before a dull thunk sounded next. "_Give me at least ten seconds, you'll be able to spread across the street with a little less trouble._"

Bartlet chuckled to himself before nodding shortly as he pressed his fingers against the tac/com again. "Roger that Hawx, waiting for your signal." The line clicked and the sergeant turned to his men with a rather satisfied smirk tugging at his thin lips. "Be ready to move! Myles, Runnels; when I give you the signal – " Bartlet's words were cut short as the distinct crack of a Longshot being fired rang out through the next street, the alarmed screech of the Locust shouting what sounded like "_**SNIPER!**_" following shortly after before a wild explosion of gunfire erupted.

"Shit that kid works fast!" Bartlet spluttered while peeking out from around the corner for a quick look, his quick glance giving him a rather decent view of a Locust Drones' head exploding from the back out. Pulling back, Bartlet looked to his men and jabbed a finger at Myles and Runnels and then hooked a thumb in gesture towards the opposite street corner, "Get yours asses across the street and set up position to push forward!"

The two nodded quickly as they pushed themselves up into crouched stances and darted across the street, keeping low and twitching slightly in response to the pop shots being aimed at them as they sprinted. Another loud crack and one of the Locust Drones that had turned its attention to the two Gears breaking cover, was now flailing miserably for a split second as its forehead exploded in a crimson spray that drenched the concrete with brain matter and skull fragments as it fell lifeless. The Hammerburst that it had been wielding was now sent skittering across the cracked street pavement before being snatched up by another Drone that attempted to continue fire on the newly acquired position the human soldiers had taken up. However, that didn't last long as another bullet from a Longshot nailed the Drone in the temple felling it quickly and brining the Locust numbers down to nine.

Pressing his right shoulder into the crumbling red brick of the building, Bartlet aimed his Lancer the best he could from corner cover and opened fire on the Locust that were torn between seeking out the sniper that was slowly picking them off and the four Gears that were unleashing Lancer fire on them now from two positions. Hitting one knee as he moved forward to kneel immediately at Bartlet's right, Evans hugged tight against his sergeant's leg as he leaned forward out around the corner with eye squinting through the Lancer's sight as he pulled the trigger for a quick burst of fire. The commanding hiss of the Theron Guard could barely be picked up amongst the chaotic noises that were engulfing the small street, but it appeared as though the commanding Locust split what remained of its own troops up into two groups with different objectives. One group focused on the Gears they had originally been firing on at the start while the second group attempted to pick out the sniper that had claimed yet another headshot on their numbers.

The Theron Guard hissed angrily as blood and brain matter splattered itself across the hem of its armored robes, its helmeted head snapping upwards as it tried to pinpoint the location of the sniper. Its best estimate was taken and with a quick pull of the trigger, the Theron Guard let fly an explosive bolt that struck the front side corner of the building that loomed over him and the Drones he commanded. Half a second after the bolt dug deep into the concrete structure it detonated and sent an explosion of debris out in a fanning spray that rained down upon the street. Another hiss escaped the Theron Guards lip lacking mouth as it realized its calculated estimate had been wrong and yet another Drone hit the ground in a slump.

"**FRAG!**" A Drone bellowed from the front where it worked to kill the _GEAR_s out on the street.

Too late. The deafening explosion that followed the two foot clatter and roll of the frag grenades' landing managed to do two things – kill several Locust immediately as it had been literally right at their feet, and injury a few others with sprayed shrapnel that tore into anything not covered by their crude armor. One Locust snarled and howled angrily as it raked fingers over its own eyes fiercely, forgetting even where it was and what was going on as it stood upright in full exposure from cover. It's thrashing and snarled curses were cut short as both Myles and Runnels pumped its body with half a clip each. Another crack and another injured Locust hit the ground with half its head missing from its neck. The group of thirteen that had appeared from the Emergence Hole had now drastically dwindled down to a meager two Drones and the still standing Theron Guard.

"HAWX! TAKE THAT SON OF A BITCH DOWN!" Bartlet bellowed into the tac/com as a shot from the Theron Guard's Torque Bow exploded right at the center point between the two pairs that had take up either corner.

As if all that was needed for the Theron Guard to be killed, the Longshot cracked as it opened fire, the bullet nailing the commanding Locust right between the eyes and dropping it with its own rain of grizzly death. The second the Theron Guards' body hit the ground the remaining two Drones stared with slack jaws at their dead commander before exchanging looks between one another as gunfire continued to pound on their cover. One Drone snarled in frustration as it loosened a grenade from its belt and stood as it began swinging the small weapon in a quick rotation to give it a furthering momentum after being tossed at the _GEAR_s. The action was too slow on the Drones' part as the well aimed bullet from the Longshot hit the grenade its spin and detonated the explosive object right in its hand. The remaining Drone hissed and back-pedaled up against the barricade as it watched its last standing comrade become nothing more than a mangled gelatinous mess from the waist up as it fell to the ground.

Staring in disbelief at what had happened so quickly, the Drone was unaware of the two Gears that were rushing up on its location until it was too late. The screeching buzz of the Lancer's chainsaw bayonet revved loudly before Runnels brought it down across the back of the Drones' head. Squinting his eyes as tightly as possible without sacrificing his own sight, Runnels pressed his lips firmly together to keep the spraying blood and tissue that was being thrown up into the air with the Locusts' squeals as its head was torn apart by the bayonet. Turning his head slightly to avoid as much of the mess as he was making, Runnels released the chainsaws' trigger and stomped a foot down against the barricade wall as he wrenched the bayonet out of the skull it had wedged itself into.

"Fuck, Runnels." Myles chuckled while clapping his buddy on the shoulder after stepping up beside him. "Trying to earn the award for best bayonet kill or what?" He teased while taking in the sight of the mangled Drone that was slightly twitching on the other side of the barricade.

The redhead laughed aloud while hoisting his Lancer up across the front of his shoulder while using his free hand to wipe away the blood and gore that stuck to his face. "Nah, just felt like cracking this bitch in the skull. Fucking assholes think they can pin us down; fuck that!" He grinned, flicking his wrist to be rid of the gunk he had cleaned off his face.

Myles hooted while clapping Runnels on the shoulder again, shaking his head as he surveyed the litter of Locust corpses that lay strewn about the small space they had crammed themselves into after popping out of the Emergence Hole. "Gotta give it up to that Hawx though, little fucker took the bigger chunk out of this group." Myles' gaze flickered over to the dead Theron Guard and both brows shot up, "Fucking-A! He nailed a Theron Guard right between the eyes!"

Runnels smirked as he glanced over at the dead body, "Son of a bitch." He shook his head while hopping over the barricade, careful to avoid the mess he had made out of the last Drone. Wiping the back of his hand across his brow as he could still feel the blood and matter clinging there, Runnels walked over to the lifeless body of the Theron Guard, crouching beside it as he neared and jabbed a fist at its head. "I hate these fucking things, always hissing, and fucking hard as shit to take down with all that goddamn armor." Another jab at the head and Runnels sneered at the elite Locust before catching sight of the discarded Torque Bow that lay just out of hands reach to the Theron Guard. His lips twitched at the left corner as he stood up and shuffled two steps before bending down to pick up the alien weapon.

"Hawx, you alright?" Bartlet stood out in the open, having left cover once he saw Runnels slam his chainsaw bayonet down on to the remaining Locust, he had two fingers pressed to the tac/com as he scanned the skyline for wherever the sniper had taken up residence. He had heard the several explosions that had happened, knowing that the Theron Guard was more than likely armed with a Torque Bow and trying to pick the sniper out.

"_I'm good; coming street side now._" Hawx returned while the sounds of movement and the heavy huff a strained breath followed along with his response.

Bartlet nodded his head as he adjusted his hold on the Lancer and started towards where Runnels and Myles were, "Roger that." He quirked a brow as he approached the two Gears, who were currently laughing aloud at some shared joke that Bartlet had obviously missed. "Runnels, nice work." Bartlet congratulated his soldier, a hearty slap to the younger man's back that caused the redhead to stumble forward a step and cough from the sudden force that struck him. The sergeant smirked while surveying the handy work that he and his squad had dished out on the Locust. A rather amused look alighted across his worn face as he noticed the single shots to the middle of the forehead on a few of the Drones. "Bastards never saw it coming." He mused while kicking one in the jaw before turning at the sound of a door scraping across the ground as it opened on squealing hinges.

Hawx stepped out of the dark hole that he had managed to pick his way towards through the obstacle course that the inside of the building had been turned into thanks in part to a partial cave-in. The sniper merely waved at the Gears that stared at him, half salutes and a nod of the head were returned to the sniper as he crossed the small gap to stand with his new squad mates. "_Nice finish there Runnels_." Hawx nodded over at the Drone that had met its end at the teeth of the private's chainsaw bayonet.

The redhead merely waved the compliment off with a shrug of the shoulder, a smirk playing along his mouth as he enjoyed the compliments of his handy work. "Yeah, well, nothing compared to that wicked shot you took." He hefted up the Torque Bow he had nabbed from the street and tossed it over to the sniper, who thankfully enough had relocated his Longshot to the magnetic clamp on his back and freed up his hands. "I don't how in the fucking blue hell you managed to aim and pull that shot off, but hitting that grenade in the Drones' hand was pretty sick." Noting the odd manner in which Hawx tilted his helmeted head to the side while glancing from the Torque Bow he now held and the Gear that had thrown it, Runnels chuckled. "Consider it a usable souvenir."

Evans laughed aloud and shook his head as he watched Hawx shrug and check the weapon over before attaching it to the lower magnetic clamp that was strapped about the back of the snipers' utility belt. "Fuck, a sniper like Hawx with a Torque Bow; shit, why don't we just fucking storm the Hollow now and end the war."

Even Bartlet had to laugh at that.


	5. Highway to Hell

**Chapter Five**

**Highway To Hell**

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_It is easy to go down to hell; Night and Day the Gates of Dark Death stand wide; But to climb back up again, to retrace ones steps to the open air, there lies the problem, the difficult task. - _**Virgil, _The Aeneid: Book VI_**

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"Goddammit."

Private Henry Runnels spat under his breath as he caught himself out of a stumble that was a result of his heavy boot catching on a jutting bit of splintered asphalt. The very street itself had literally ruptured from beneath itself. The earth forced upwards by whatever means the Locust had employed, cracking the four inch thick paving that had been laid years ago and thrusting it upwards in a manner that had one shelf collapsing over the other before the building to the left had toppled over from the upset of its foundation. The ending product of the destruction resulted in the jagged toothed obstacle that had come to block a greater portion of what was left of the road. Runnels adjusted himself, tugging at the hard collar of his chest plate to re-situate the way in which had been sitting upon him as the stumble had shifted it a bit in an uncomfortable manner.

It had already been two days since Beta Squad had veered from their intended path towards Jacinto and went to investigate the sight where Omega Squad made it's last stand against a Locust ambush. Two days since they had found the only survivor of the utter massacre and added him to the ranks of Beta Squad. Two days of utter hell as they trudged through what had at one point been a beautiful city; now gutted, charred, and rotting at the hands of past battles. Buildings stood gnarled and fractured with windows long blown out from any number of things that could have shattered the glass, chunks missing from some while others were completely leveled out and spilling into the streets in an unmoving river of concrete and steel. There were burned out and rusted vehicles here and there as always along with abandoned blockades made up of heavy duty sandbags. The same tired scene that they were all far too familiar with and essentially desensitized towards. The cities were always deserted battlefields; sterile and treeless without a single sign of mobile life until the ground upturned on itself with the opening of an E-Hole and the Locust oozed out.

Hiking up his Lancer, Private Runnels glanced ahead to where Sergeant Bartlet and Private Ted Myles were currently taking point before turning his head to look over his shoulder. Corporal Zach Evans and the sniper from the now KIA Omega Squad slid down the crumbling face of the upturned street, the metal soles of their boots digging into the dying asphalt as they balanced themselves the best they could, bringing up the rear of Beta Squad again. It hadn't taken Hawx long to fall in step with the rest of Beta Squad and even though it had only been a couple of days, it felt almost naturally to have the sniper as a member to the group. It sure as hell made things a bit easier, what with the high-tech helmet the sniper was equipped with and his overall abilities with a Longshot riffle. After the first run-in with a Locust party since picking up the lone survivor of Omega Squad, there had been a few other moments where Beta was caught up in a firefight against roaming grubs and even ambushed at one point by a pack of Wretches, but they had made it out in one piece with only a few scratches and a small depletion in their ammo stock.

"Fuck the Locust." Evans grumbled as he lost his footing with a step and wobbled slightly before catching himself as he came down off the upturned asphalt pyramid he had been successful in sliding down.

Runnels chuckled under his breath as he and his comrades as they turned to catch up with Sgt. Bartlet and Myles. "You just now saying that?" He smirked over at his buddy, who in turn shot him a dirty look which caused a small laugh to gurgle out through Hawxs' helmet Tac/Com. Again Runnels snickered while shaking his head, "Chill Zach, I'm not dicking with ya, just trying to lighten the mood."

"Har har." Evans growled while staring ahead now, "Fucking comedian."

Up ahead Myles snorted a short laugh as he listened to his friends bicker between one another now over the open in-team channel of their Tac/Com. Runnels and Evans had been friends for a long time, way back before E-Day and way back before they were of even of enlisting age during the close end of the Pendulum Wars. While they shared similar traits in their personalities and attitudes, they were definitely an oil and water sort of pair that had their squad mates calling their friendship an absolute freak of nature. Even now as they bickered and shot hostile words towards one another, there was evidence of a brotherhood that ran far deeper than any argument could render undone.

"Fuck man, seriously!" Evans spat while finally throwing up his hands in utter annoyance at his friend, "Just shut the fuck up already would ya? The fucking Locust don't need to try and locate us, you'll lead them straight here with that goddamn mouth of yours!"

"_Uh, Evans, I'd hate to point this out but your own yelling isn't helping much either._" Hawxs' voice clicked in through the helmet's outside link, the calm even voice of the sniper holding just the slightest tinge of a small smirk that was hidden behind the faceless plate of the helmet.

Evans gawked at the sniper, jaw dropping instantly at how easily the new man to the team had cut in with his own witty remark, while Runnels choked and snorted on his own laughter that threatened to erupt for everyone and everything to hear in that spit of wasteland. Myles bit back his own laughter at the front as he heard the corporal start to sputter out a far too late response to the sniper's jest, the low chuckle of the sergeant beside him coming out briefly as he glanced back over his shoulder momentarily. The corporal continued to stumble over a retort of any kind for a moment longer before he suddenly pulled a face that looked like a cross between a disgusted grimace and a pucker before he lifted his gaze skyward and slowly came to a complete halt.

"You've gotta be shitting me."

Runnels swallowed a bubble of laughter as he too felt an acidic taste assault his tongue merely through the breath he had just inhaled. Frowning at first, Runnels couldn't quite place the odd taste for a few seconds before he glanced over at his friend and felt the furrows on his own brow deepen as he followed suit and glanced skyward. By now the entire squad had halted its progression, eyes staring straight up into the overcast sky that already looked as though it were filled with piss and vinegar, a collective frown etching itself across their faces. The breathing filters on the helmet denied the acidic flavor that wafted through the air to hit the sniper, but Hawx could only take one guess as to what had caused the looks on the faces of the men as the small alarm lit up across the HUD.

"_Nemacysts._" The sniper muttered under his breath, the word rasping through the Tac/Com as the undulating balloon shaped bodies of the aerial parasites lazily drifted passed. Inky trails of black and green marred the already angry looking sky in their wake, the unusual liquid fanning out in wispy lines that slowly bled away to pollute the air with the disgusting tinge that Hawx often citied as close to a pungent coppery sort of acidic punch like blood but harsher.

The HUD skipped and scanned over the flock of Nemacysts as they slowly wafted through the air as though mocking the flight pattern of the birds. The network that the HUD worked off of and received its quickly extracted information already had all it could possible support concerning the little kamikaze flesh balloons, but even though that was the case the various lenses zoomed in and scoped out the flock numbering in the double digits. All attention was upon the Nemacyst flock until the slightly startled voice of Runnels broke the strange sort of silence that had fallen upon Beta Squad.

"What the hell?" The private murmured aloud. Something soft and feather-light had come in contact with the skin of his cheek, its presence nearly unnoticed until another touch on the same cheek shook the man from his skyward gaze. He wiped at his face and glanced down at the off-colored grey that now stained the fingertips of his heavy gloves. He stared at the odd substance, eyes squinting a bit before he noticed several small flakes of the same color drift across his vision in the same manner as falling snow.

"Christ almighty..." Evans barely found his voice as he too noticed that not only was the air tainted with the communication blocking ink of the Nemacysts, but there was a grey snow-like downfall that seemed far too unusual to be anything 'normal'. "What the hell is this stuff?" Corporal Evans glanced about as he noticed that the fall was all about them, covering everything slowly in a thin blanket.

Bartlet wiped at the grey matter that dusted across his Lancer, the entire width of the underside of his glove now blotched and looking far lighter than before. It was a strangely ethereal sight to behold and for the moment, Bartlet and his squad stared in a sort of tranced awe at the macabre scene that played out about them. _What the hell is this shit? It's falling like snow, and it's all over the place now._ The sergeant was snapped from his thoughts as the tail end of Hawxs' voice entered his hearing. Glancing towards the sniper, whose emotion lacking helmet plate stared straight back at him, Bartlet lifted a thick brow in an unspoken question.

The sniper didn't even question the look on the sergeant's face as he responded immediately in the same monotone as before. "_Ash._"

"Something bigs' burnin'n." Myles muttered dryly as he wiped at the ash he could feel tickling his face. As if the privates' own words were the cue, a faint orange glow bled across the sky in the distance beyond the disgruntled building tops that loomed before the Gears. "Fuck'n A, I was right." The private grumbled while rolling his eyes at the unwanted humor of irony.

Bartlet immediately pressed two fingers to the Tac/Com in his ear and adjusted the signal for short range to at least be within earshot of any one that happened to be nearby. "Let's keep our ears open boys." He grunted at his men who were already in the process of also readjusting their own Tac/Com earpieces as well. "If Lady Luck still favors Beta, hopefully the broadband on Hawxs' helmet will pick up long range. I'm gonna want to know ASAP the second you do kid."

Hawx merely tipped his head in understanding as the squad began to move out once more, the sighting of the Nemacyst and the raining ash putting the entire group on high alert. Lancers were held a bit more tightly now, and even Hawx had unclipped the Snub pistol from the magnetic clamp on his waist belt as he once more brought up the rear with Evans. To say that tension had risen amongst the ranks would have been understatement for sure as the Gears slid their way out of the street and slipped alongside the face of buildings, pressing tight with eyes watching the higher places that could be a possible ambush point. From its place further up front and hidden by its cloaking shield, JACK sent continuous feed to the HUD of the sniper's helmet, giving the squad a far greater vantage point of vision. Covering ground quickly, Beta Squad had made their way through several blocks without coming across anything Locust which was a welcome change from the day before where the slow crawl home was pained by an attempted ambush that seemed to pop up every ten minutes.

It had been little over an hour by the time Beta broke free of the downtown street blocks and found themselves at the start of a highway junction that lifted off the ground in an eastward and westward overpass. The choice between the two overpasses was narrowed directly down to the westward direction as the eastward overpass had collapsed at a little less than half a mile from where the junction started. Not entirely liking the fact that they would be out in the open for the most part with patches of rubble and burnt out cars here and there, the Gears slowly made their way up the overpass and then proceeded to spread out from one another in a jagged pattern as they commenced their hike once more. The continuous fall of ash had changed the world about them dramatically as it coated everything including the ground beneath their feet. A sort of dead and decrepit look had taken hold and with the lack of sound aside from their own footfalls and breathing, it was as if they had stepped into a whole other world.

Vehicles of various make and model littered the highway overpass, a few having been turned over and even slammed up against the cement siding. At one point Beta was forced to climb and pick their way around a jack-knifed freight truck that was stretched across the highway with a gutted trailer. At another point on the highway there was an overspill of broken concrete and twisted steel as several buildings had collapsed and pushed forward in a surge that slammed into the overpass and washed over it. As Beta Squad navigated the jumbled maze that the overpass had become, the once distant orange glow had grown intensely as the Gears pressed forward. There was a slight rise in temperature the further they traveled and before they knew it the grey ash had become darker in color, the barest touch causing a slight irritation.

"The fuck?" Myles rubbed at his cheek quickly as the irritation on his skin almost seemed to burn a bit, a black smudge pulling out across the privates' tanned skin from the rough gesture. "Shit, this stuff fucking burns."

Bartlet glanced momentarily over his shoulder at the private, a brow pulling upwards in question before he felt a prickling sensation on his own face. Immediately the sergeant scrunched his face, wriggling his nose slightly to be rid of the annoyance that was starting to burn and finally ran a hand over his face to be rid of the feeling. _The hell...? Whys the ash burning now? The only time I know ash to actually burn is when..._

"Holy mother loving..." Evans trailed off as he came to a slow halt in his walk, eyes wide and body loosing its rigid posture almost instantly.

"Fuck... me..." Runnels muttered as he could only stare at the sight that they had come across.

Bartlet merely grunted and shook his head slightly while Myles let loose a low whistle as Beta came to a halt on the highway overpass. While Hawxs' face remained hidden beneath the faceless plate of the helmet, the sniper's jaw had tightened almost instantly, teeth grinding against one another as the disturbance of packed away memories slowly started to bubble beneath the surface of thought. The brief flash of the ambush Omega Squad had suffered was one of the many images that raced forward across the sniper's mind, broiling at the forefront as though it demanded far more attention than anything else that was beginning to wake.

What greeted the battered unit of Gears was something that could have only come straight out of an old piece of literature; the morbid twist of irony of the old saying 'highway to hell' lay sprawled out before them at the right-hand side of the overpass. That once distant orange glow had become an all consuming reddish light that bled out from the city as it burned from the inside out. Buildings stood dilapidated and crippled, windows long since blown out leaving gapping wounds that bore scorch marks along jagged edging as fire continued to spit and strike from within. Everything in that part of the city was on fire, burning and melting beneath the intense heat that showed no signs of relenting its demonic frenzy upon the world it sought to consume. There was the distant pop from somewhere within that bed of fire that hardly startled the Gears that watched from the safety of the overpass, but it was the low groaning creak of some structure starting to weaken beneath its own weight that prodded the Gears into movement once again.


	6. Ghosts

**Chapter Six**

**Ghosts**

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"_Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down." - _**Johnny Cash, **_**God's Gonna Cut You Down**_

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The high-pitched squeal of the flash grenade rang horribly through their hearing, eyes squinting against the intense flash of light that had come right before the ringing. At least it had done its job and stunned the enemies, only problem was that the throw had been blind and not entirely accurate. The flash grenade had managed to at least make it to the foot of the concrete block that several Drones had slammed themselves against in cover, but the moment the grenade hit the block it rolled backwards and stopped only when it was right in the middle of the ground separating Humans from Locust. At least one Gear had seen it and shouted the warning seconds before the grenade went off, not entirely enough time to get everyone under cover, but it was at least a decent heads-up that got most behind whatever was at hand.

From the other side of the downtown street turned into a war-torn battlefield, Drones snarled and gurgled their jumbled mess of a language as hands clawed at eyes and ears to be rid of the horrid pain that agitated what seemed like every nerve ending. The light of the sun was disgusting enough as it was, but this, the flash grenades of the Humans that the Locust sought to eradicate was excruciating agony. Shaking their heads from side to side like irritated animals nipped at by pesky flies, the Locust slowly started to recover their sight and hearing, but not quick enough. They had allowed themselves to remain out in the open without diving for the much needed cover and they paid for it instantly. One jolted in a twitching motion as its body was riddled with a rain of bullets that punctured through the weaker points of armor and exposed flesh, before finally dropping with a thud.

"Fuck!" Dominic Santiago shook his head while blinking rapidly at the same time. He sat crouched behind the cover of a rusted out truck with a shoulder pressed heavily into the metal body of the vehicle, eyes stinging from the brilliant flash of light. Dom had been the one to throw the flash grenade, but he had done so in a blind throw that hadn't entirely turned out for the best. "Shit." He muttered while blinking long and shaking his head as the world went from a blank white canvas to smugged colors and blurred shapes.

To Dom's immediate right, Marcus Fenix peeked out from around his end of vehicle cover and grunted in annoyance before leveling his Lancer and yanking back on the trigger. There was a railing shriek from the other side of the fight that lasted all but two seconds before dying and Marcus pulled back behind cover to reload his weapon. "Fuck, we're gonna get pinned down if even don't do something soon." He snarled while jamming in the next clip and tossing a glance over to where Baird and Cole were crouched up against an overturned trailer that was providing adequate shelter at the moment, but the bullets of the Drones were easily ripping through thinner parts of the trailer. The hits getting closer to the Gears than what they deemed comfortable as both men were having to crouch a bit more and slide towards what seemed like thicker cover. Shaking his head, Marcus returned his attention the bullets that were flying in his direction and the sudden numerous roars that lifted up from the Locust side of the conflict. "Shit, that only means one thing..." Marcus trailed off as he chanced to a peek out from cover.

Just as the sergeant had figured, more Locust Drones were hopping up out of the Emergence Hole that sat behind the Locust barricade. Gritting his teeth, Marcus sunk back behind cover and sat with his back pressed against the rusted and battered body of the truck. Pressing two fingers to the Tac/Com in his ear Marcus opened a line to Control. As soon as the connecting click entered his hearing, Marcus started shouting above the chaos of gunfire. "CONTROL THIS IS DELTA! WE'RE PINNED DOWN!"

"_I hear you Delta, I'm searching for nearby units to run backup but there's interference feeding in from the outside!" _The voice of Intel Officer Lieutenant Anya Stroud cracked over the Tac/Com, the distinct screech of static interference only further adding to what she said. There was silence on the Control end of the Tac/Com, to which Marcus grunted at as he got to his feet in a crouched stand and swung out from behind cover to lay in on the Drones that were still hammering down on their position. A few seconds later and Anya's voice hit the Tac/Com again. _"Lo...oks...lik...eta...n...inity..."_

Marcus growled in his throat as the sporadic spits of sound hit his ear and provided little information for the sergeant as he and Dom tucked tight against the truck as a rain of of gunfire thundered down on their position. "Fuck!" He snarled as a bullet ripped through the body of the truck and exited out just over his shoulder near his ear.

"I take it we're on our own?" Dom shouted over at Marcus, brown eyes glancing at his surly best friend as he locked and loaded his Lancer for another round.

"Aren't we always?" Marcus shot back, though his face remained grim with his usual expressionless sour stare, a small smirk tugged at the sergeant's mouth as he flipped his Lancer's fire to three round burst and semi-auto fire. Nodding at Dom, Marcus unclipped a bulo frag from his belt and with one final look at his Latino friend the sergeant pivoted on his feet even in a crouch and whipped out from the side of cover. His own actions fed the necessary force needed for the throw of the bulo frag that Marcus chucked out first, the arc of the throw taking the explosive high above the heads of the Drones and with luck landing in thick of them before going off. However, while Marcus had planned for the bulo to hit the ground and explode... the commanding sergeant of Delta could only stare with wide eyes and almost slack jaw as the bulo frag suddenly exploded right on the heads of the Drones before it even came close to contact with the earth.

In the split second that it had taken for the bulo to explode the Locust had no idea what was about to happen until it was far too late and six lay dead with heads battered in by the explosion and lacerated horribly by shrapnel. The shrapnel that had worked to carve the faces of the dead had also extended out to near twelve others close by, embedded bits of burning metal had hit faces and the backs of skulls to wrench their attention off the pressing onslaught on the human squad they were attempting to kill. Eyes were blinded, arteries severed (some severe and others not so much), white hot pain spread their nervous systems and wracked their bodies. Weapons were dropped and the battle at hand temporarily forgotten for a few seconds before the unfortunate welcomed the well placed aim of a bullet straight through the center of their foreheads, dropping to the ground under their own dead weight to collect like the rest of the dead.

"What... the fuck..." Baird stared out between the gap that separated the trailer from the cab, blue-green eyes wide and utter shock written all over his grim streaked face before he glanced over at an equally surprised Cole. "Since when did Marcus get that fucking good with his aim?!" Baird suddenly snipped only to then stutter as several Drones buckled and hit the ground as the backs of their heads exploded out in red misted chunk filled plumes that probably splattered on their fellow Locust brethren.

Cole shook his head while re-gripping his Lancer and leveled it on the startled Locust that had taken pause in the conflict, "Baby I don't think that was Marcus' shot." He hardly glanced over at Baird before pulling back on his trigger.

"_Hey sergeant, hold up! Hawx say's he's getting something over the long range broadband!" Runnels called up towards point where his commanding sergeant and Pvt. Myles were leading Beta through the twisted maze of crumbled neighborhood. Glancing from the from of the squad to the back where Hawx and Evans had stopped, Runnels jogged the small space between them and stopped not more than a few feet to the side of the sniper whose head was tilted slightly to the side with a gloved hand pressed to the rounded side. Sharing a look with Evans, who in turn merely shrugged at Runnels unspoken question, the private turned his gaze to Hawx._

_The hard clop of jogging boots was unheard by the sniper whose whole world revolved within the helmet that protected not just the ever vulnerable head but supplied vital information and did what seemed like the impossible. There was static and scrambled words that were passing through a Coalition line, the distortion no doubt coming from the interference of the Nemacysts still polluting the air. "I can't really make it out, but it sounds like there's a squad possibly pinned down by Locust Drones." Hawx muttered out the outside Tac/Com of the helmet that kept the sniper in open communication with the rest of the squad._

"_How bad's the interference?" Bartlet hiked his Lancer up a bit to get a better grip on it as his gaze mometarily drifted up towards the every overcast sky that promised possible rain at some point. He grimaced at the thought; rain had once been something he often enjoyed with his family long before E-Day, but now, with so much filth in the air as a result of the war the rain was as close to polluted water as one could get without being acid._

_Hawx held up a hand before manually pushing in on the helmet with the other hand and slide that same hand forward until an audible click was heard. The sound threw the other Gears off, but Hawx only took it as the broadband antenna was extending like it was supposed to. From the top right of the helmet's temple the already noticeable twin antenna spikes grew upwards, extending in length to receive a better signal as the internal audio plates started to kick into overdrive in order to clean the static and pick through the interference. While the voices over the Tac/Com were still distorted and scratchy, Hawx could now hear the message being passed between the two parties of the Coalition._

_Beta waited in silence, glanced exchanged every few seconds as they waited for Hawx to pick through the interference if possible. While the click they had heard had startled most of them, Bartlet merely gave a quick glance to the antenna spikes on Hawxs' helmet before returning his attention the expressionless face of the sniper's helmet. While not outwardly showing it, Bartlet was impressed by the sniper's high-tech helmet that had obviously been outfitted specifically for him rather than just being a generic cookie-cutter model that other Gears wore. The pause that Hawx had taken had grown from a few seconds to a good long minute and a half before the sniper's head leveled and the hand dropped from the rotator plate._

"_3.2 clicks east of our position, Delta Squad is pinned. Sounds like there's an unclosed E-Hole that's feeding backup to the Drones." Hawx relayed the information that had been picked out of the jumbled mess of static and white noise. As if cued by the sniper's relay the sudden roar of drifting gunfire suddenly echoed to Beta Squad through the muted noises of the various small fires that kept the silence at bay within the turmoil thrashed neighborhood. _

"_Shit that sounds closer than that." Evans grunted while his soldier instincts kicked in and he started scanning the littered streets and dark corners that seemed to suddenly surround them, grip tightening on his Lancer as he hefted it to much more ready position._

"_What should we do sarge?" Runnels looked to Bartlet with a furrowed brow as even he felt torn from this new info. The greater part of him as a Gear wanted to start moving towards the action to aid their fellow Gears, while the exhausted and spent part wanted nothing more than to cover ground and reach Jacinto._

_Bartlet glanced at his men briefly before inhaling a breath and exhaling slowly as he looked off into the direction that Delta was pinned down in. The grizzled sergeant was at odds with himself as well, he wanted to reach Jacinto as it seemed to sit just within reach now of a very much exhausted Beta... but there brothers in arms who needed backup and quickly from what he gathered off Hawx. Growling quietly to himself, Bartlet ran a hand down his already grim blotched face and shook his head while adjusting his Lancer and started walking down the side street leading east of their current position. "Get your asses moving or I'll move 'em for ya!" Bartlet barked back at his men, the order not directed at Hawx as the sniper was already falling in step behind him the second he started down the street._

_Myles snorted a laugh while following after his sergeant with Runnels and Evans doing the same, "Never fucking fails." He swore while suddenly breaking into a jog as Bartlet and Hawx pushed forward through the rubble strewn street. "Goddamn fucking Locust really know how to shit on our luck." The privates' comment spurred a laugh and "fuck yeah" from his comrades that flanked him on either side._

"Goddamn Marcus!" Dom blinked dumbly at what he had just witnessed before following Cole's actions and opened fire on the startled Locust as the opportunity to shred their numbers had now presented itself. He chuckled under his breath as he railed in on the standing Drones, mowing them down with decent accuracy and hitting them in the 'killzone'. There were about six less Drones scrambling for cover and weapons than previously as the Latino smirked to himself and pull back into cover seconds after Marcus. "Man I don't know how you managed to do that!" Dom laughed while reaching over and clapping his best friend on the shoulder before switching his Lancer from semi-automatic to fully.

Marcus grunted while staring at the ground in front of him while adjusting the hold he had on his Lancer. "That wasn't me Dom." Marcus growled out while narrowing his gaze on the peppered asphalt that was cracked and splintered from heavy weight dropping on it some time ago. _That was fucking miracle shot if I've ever seen one. But it wasn't anyone from Delta who hit that bulo, none of us got that kind of aim..._ Marcus looked up and over at Dom to meet the Latino's puzzled stare. "It wasn't my shot Dom, I didn't hit that bulo!" He clarified while gesturing with a hand towards the scrambling Locust that were roaring in anger as they had assumed their side of the fight again.

Looking more than confused now as he turned a bit in his crouch to face Marcus and even spare a glance out from cover to the disgruntled Locus side of the fight, Dom looked at Marcus with a furrowed brow and small scowl. "If that wasn't you then who the hell shot the bulo?!"

"The fuck I know!" Marcus snapped while pushing himself up and side-stepped out of cover again to open fire on a few Drones that popped into his sights and then pulled back behind the truck as the now dead Locust hit the ground behind their barricade. "Shit, I think Anya was trying to say something about another squad in the area, but there was too much interference on the lines to hear her." Marcus quickly explained to Dom as the Latino angled his Lancer out from around the tail of the truck and sprayed in blind fire at the Drones.

"Are you sure?!" Dom asked before throwing himself wide and aimed down his sights, several Drones dropping under the corporal's fire.

Marcus just grunted as he pushed out from under cover and started firing again on the Locust. Aiming down his sights and picking several of the closest – and for a lack of a better word – dumber Drones standing in the open Marcus paused momentarily as his right eye that had been using the sight on his Lancer watched as two Drones hit with a single bullet through the head buckled and hit the ground, their weapons flying elsewhere as they lost grip. Looking away from his sight, Marcus stared at the spot where the Drones had been standing, eyes wide and a slightly dumbfounded look on his face. There's only one thought running through his head at that solitary moment, _Sniper. _The burning zing of a bullet whizzing passed his ear shook the sergeant out of his thoughts and focused him back on the fight as he sat crouched on one knee and lifted the Lancer back up so his sight was at his eye-level again.

Both sides continued to exchange fire, the Drones taking a far greater thrashing than Delta was, save for the sudden "FUCK!" that shot up from Baird and Cole's side of the fray as the blonde Gear had been grazed by a lucky shot that snaked itself across the side of his temple. Baird pulled back under cover momentarily, a gloved hand testing the burning line that had cut itself across his flesh before swearing again and returning to the fight with what seemed like renewed vigor for the near death experience he had been treated to. Marcus seemed to be the only noticing the sudden rate in which Drones were hitting the ground, many of the deaths occurring within seconds of each other as head shot after head shot launched the Locust side into a sudden frenzy of aggravation in response to the incoming sniper fire. It wasn't until the sudden _whump! _of an explosion and the kick up of dirt into the air behind the Locust barricade did the rest of Delta realize that they had somehow acquired backup to their situation. The E-Hole had been closed apparently, or so was the hopeful assumption in the minds of the Gears as they noticed the Locust assault thinning that followed the bellowed command of a lead Drone.

Marcus could have sworn he had heard something that sounded like the Drone was shouting about a flank attack but he couldn't quite understand the garbled mess of what was supposed to be a language and returned his attention to slaughtering what was left of the enemy across from him. Another head shot took down a charging would-be suicide runner and dropped the body of the Drone just a few feet from the cement walls it had left. Whatever explosives it had carried with it exploded a second later and forced both sides to tuck under cover to hide from the rain of shrapnel and bloody mess that sprayed out rather than up and out. While the Gears gave the air about a five second wait time for things to clear, several more Locust Drones were picked off from continuing sniper fire that hadn't ceased when the explosion happened.

_The gunfire was practically ringing in Beta's ears as they pushed through the crumbled mess of blown out and nearly toppled buildings that continued to loom above them. Bartlet and Myles led point while Runnels and Evan brought up the rear sandwiching Hawx at the center as the sniper still only held a sidearm rather than the Longshot hooked to the magnetic clamp. Pulling Beta into the cover of a forged avenue created within the gap of a fallen apartment building into another structure, Bartlet looked to Hawx as soon as the sniper slid in alongside himself and Myles. "Hawx, get me a fix on location."_

_The HUD within the sniper's helmet lit up as the systems worked quickly to triangulate the positions of friendlies and non-friendlies on the battlefield they had worked themselves up to. "We're right on top of Delta's position; Drones situated on the other side of the street, E-Hole is still active."_

"_Alright Beta, listen up!" Bartlet barked at his men. "That E-Hole is the primary target, we've gotta get that bitch closed or our effort to backup Delta is blown to shit." He looked his original squad mates directly as he already knew the best course of action to take. "Hawx, get your ass up high and start giving Delta support; pick those fuckers off fast. Boys, we're flanking the enemy and closing that E-Hole and pulling as much heat off Delta as we can. We're not gonna know what the terrain is like till we get there, but we'll give 'em hell all the same." _

"_Hell yeah sarge!" Runnels grunted, similar acknowledgments coming from the other two men of Beta Squad as well. A lack of a response from Hawx caused the private to glance towards the spot the sniper had been standing only to find it empty and no sign of the rescued Omega Squad member anywhere in the avenue. A small laugh left the private as he shook his head, "Fucking creepy little bastard." _

_Myles chuckled while shrugging as their sergeant seemed to be well aware of the lacking sniper presence as he gestured with a flick of his head for them to follow him out of the avenue and out onto an open street all over again. While Bartlet led the flank attack, Hawx had already hiked up through one hell of a maze inside of a building on the same block Beta had separated on. Thanks to the terrain readout that the helmet's HUD received from the broadband antenna and radar scope, the sniper found the best vantage point over the main fray that Delta was pinned down in. Grabbing a separated pipeline that hung overhead and still drizzled dirty water from one end, Hawx swung up over a mound of debris that choked the remaining stairs going up. Thanks to such a small body size and build the sniper easily slid over the crumbling soft top of the mound and scooted down until reaching the edge to slid off of and landed on the ground feet first. Already the steady build of adrenaline was starting to work its magic on the sniper, but whereas a regular Gear would be pumped and over flooded with testosterone so he was itching for a fight, Hawx found a certain type of clarity and hyper awareness start to bloom._

_Reaching a point that kept Hawx above the fight but not in an area that would be a dead give away, the sniper clipped the sidearm to the magnetic clamp on the waist belt and unhooked the Longshot resting against the back of his right shoulder. Situated, Hawx tilted his head to the right as the butt of the sniper rifle was hugged tight against the front of the shoulder, the targeting systems and binocular zoom of the helmet kicked in and started to zero in on the fight. Behind a trailer and a truck that were about twelve feet from one another, Hawx spotted the Gears of Delta and watched as one behind the truck started to slowly swing a bulo frag he had unclipped from his belt. For all but two seconds Hawx watched as the Gear with the frag swung out from around the nose of the truck and chucked the frag on its upwards spin to send it arcing for the Locust behind cement and steel. Following a thrown frag was a hard thing to do, damn near impossible for a hell of a lot of soldiers and even some of the best sniper's, but it was almost easy for Hawx. The frag followed a path, and while it followed its path Hawx followed after it and with what seemed like inhuman speed, calculated where it would land and leveled the Longshot quickly as the trigger was squeezed._

_Some would call it a miracle shot, some would call it damn near impossible, while others would say it was absolutely inhuman, but the fact of the matter was that the round fired from the Longshot had done its job as it hit the frag just as it came head level to the Drones. It was something the sniper had never done before, ever. Sure there had been plenty of times where the lucky shot o shooting a cooking frag in the hand of a Locust had happened, but never once could the sniper recall a moment identical to this one as the frag exploded and decapitated several Drones, downing a few others, and injuring a handful more in the process. That had created a stir of chaos amongst the Locust ranks and gave the equally startled members of Delta time to open fire on the blindsided Drones. Smirking beneath the helmet, Hawx lined up the next shot and began methodically picking off the Locust behind the barricade. Focused on the front line, Hawx never saw the flanking attack the rest of Beta started until the sudden distinct pop of a muffled explosion followed by the plume of tan as the earth collapsed in on itself._

The Locust were thinning in numbers until only hardly a handful were left as the firefight weighed in the favor of the Gears that were no longer huddled behind cover by the oppressive rain of the Locust gunfire. Cole unclipped a bulo from his belt and planted himself square out in the open with a whooping holler as he let the bulo swing high from his hand straight into the middle of what Locust remained behind the barricade. Even before the explosive had time to detonate as the Drones scrambled away for cover, Cole plowed straight across the street with chainsaw bayonet revving as he set his sights on the straggler that limped after his brothers. The bulo detonated, it's explosion and shrapnel taking out the only good leg the straggling Locust had and left him gurgling in pain as his limb had become nothing but a shredded stump while he hit the ground. Vaulting over the barricade Cole nearly landed right on top of the mangled Locust and slammed a booted foot straight down on the middle of its back.

"Yeah baby, that's what I'm talk'n about!" Cole hollered over the screech of the bayonet as it tore through the shoulder of the Drone beneath his boot and cleaved it in two as it flailed helplessly. The gore of the kill spattered the tall giant black man's legs and choked the blade of the chainsaw bayonet as Cole yanked it free of the dead body. Whooping up a storm, Cole failed to notice that one of the retreating Locust Drones had turned back around and was now leveling its Hammerburst on the celebrating Gear.

"Cole stop fucking around!" Baird shouted while sprinting across the street and skidding to a stop at the barricade as he hefted his Lancer up to aim down the sights at the maliciously grinning Drone that seemed to be taking its sweet time. "COLE!"

The Drone's meaty finger twitched as it started to squeeze back on the trigger, it's aim dead center on the exact center of the Gear's head. This Drone would take out the over zealous human in the same way so many of its brethren, it's brothers in arms, had been taken out. Rabid glee pumped through the Drone as it imagined the head of the human exploding from the impact of its bullet, the heavily armored body collapsing in a pool of its own life fluids. The world spun out from under the Drone and life as it knew ended within the split second it would have taken to pull the trigger as the high caliber round of a Longshot rifle split it's skull in two and dropped it dead.

Baird let loose the held breath he had sucked in as he aimed for the Locust only to watch as someone else dropped it with one hell of a clean shot. Dropping his Lancer from position Baird ran a hand over his face as Cole continued to remain oblivious to the fact he just almost took a bullet to the head. "Oh my god," Baird groaned while climbing over the barricade and nearly stomping straight up to his friend, whom he in turn backhanded upside the head. "Are you a fucking moron, you fucking moron?!" He snapped at the still grinning Gear that towered over him by a good foot or so. Baird bit back the urge to shoot his friend himself as Cole broke into a loud hearty laugh and clapped him on the shoulder.

Chuckling weakly to himself as he watched Baird and Cole, Dom picked himself up from the kneeling position he had been in for the passed minute and locked his Lancer to the magnetic clamp on his back. "Cole has got to be the luckiest son of a bitch I have ever met." He shook his head, gaze turning to the grim looking Marcus who merely surveyed the battlefield briefly before pressing two fingers to his Tac/Com ear piece.

"Control this Delta, come in." Marcus growled out and waited through the dull buzz of static for a response, eyes scanning the upturned street stained with what was left of a Locust body.

"_Control here Delta, reading you loud and clear now." _Anya's voice broke in over the static with far more clarity than it had earlier.

"Locust presence has been cleared out of the area, and we're all accounted for." Marcus returned, eyes turning upwards now towards the jagged line of rooftops that surrounded the street, squinting as even though it was overcast there was still a far greater amount of light in the sky compared to his level on the ground. He scanned every possible inch of what was deemed as 'sniper territory', the highest elevation was prime hunting ground. Marcus knew there was no chance in hell of spotting a sniper's nest, it just wasn't something that happened so easily and for a good reason, but yet he still scanned the area with narrowed eyes. "Anya, are there any other units in the area?"

"_That's what I had tried to tell you during the firefight but interference with the line signal cut out the relay. Beta Squad is the only known unit close to your location, but at the moment it's hard to completely pinpoint their exact location."_ Anya paused on her end briefly before picking back up again, _"The best I can tell is that Beta is headed west from your position."_

"They have a sniper on their team?" Marcus questioned quickly as he stared back over his shoulder at a few of the caved in buildings that choked out the grey sky with their ragged frames.

Another pause came as Anya went over the roster of the known members of Beta Squad before giving Marcus an answer. _"Negative Delta; Beta has no known snipers on their team at this time."_

Marcus grunted as he thought otherwise. "Right. Delta out." Marcus cut his end of the line and dropped his gaze from the high building points. Hefting his Lancer up in both hands, Marcus gave one final glance about the area before turning to the rest of his squad as they stood now watching him with fatigued but questioning stares. Grunting to himself, Marcus walked the small space that separated him from his men, mouth opening to give the order to move out and continue on to Jacinto when it snapped shut as the earth beneath his feet shuddered violently. "You've gotta be kidding me!" Marcus steadied himself as another tremor forced his body into a sway that sought to topple him.

**"NO FUCKING WAY!!"**


	7. The Bigger They Are

**Author's Note: **Before this chapter even begins with the ass kickery, I would like to extend a massive thanks and shout out to fellow Gears of War author **Fire Kunai **who was kind enough to recommended this story to their own readers (and for saying that my pen name was awesome lol, thanks for that again FK!) along with unworthy praise of being one of the "one of the best GoW action writers on the site". You are too kind in your words my friend towards this humble novice of a writer :) thank you very much!

I would also like to extend the same courtesy that Fire Kunai extended me by saying this - GO READ GEARS OF WAR 2: CRIMSON CROSS! GO DO IT NOW! YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED, I PROMISE! Great story telling, a very well crafted original character, and a wonderful take on the event of GoW2.

Fire Kunai, again, thank you for your kind words and for recommending my story to others. I really do appreciate it :)

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**Chapter Seven**

**The Bigger They Are...**

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_He who fights with monsters should take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. _- **Friedrich Nietzsche, **_**Beyond Good and Evil**_

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"Holy shit! BRUMAK!" Baird's voice announced the obvious and Delta scrambled for cover in a matter of a split second.

The earth shuddered and groaned beneath the massive body of the ten thousand (and possibly plus) kilogram weighing gargantuan monstrosity that lumbered its way up the street with jaws a gap and glistening in the dull grimy light of the day. Its deafening roar was something akin to two giant pieces of metal scraping harshly against one another in a low rumble that vibrated the air itself. It hadn't even been a decent ten minutes since the end of the first firefight for Delta to gain some recovery time before the Brumak pushed itself up out of the earth with another wave of Locust Drones threading about its feet. As soon as the squad of four hit cover, Marcus had two fingers pressed to his Tac/Com and bellowed above the roar of exchanged fire as the fight had started.

"CONTROL! CONTACT BETA SQUAD! WE'RE PINNED DOWN BY A BRUMAK AND RENEFORCEMENTS! WE NE – !"

Marcus was cut off instantly by the sudden bellow of the Brumak as the walking war machine threw its long muscle and heavy weapon laden arms up over its head, thick fingers groping at its helmet covered head in a hurried and almost frantic manner. Something was incredibly strange about the whole sight, so much so that Marcus stared in stunned silence rather than finish his call-in for backup via the only other squad that may or may not be in the area. Staring at the howling Brumak with utter confusion furrowing his brow, the sergeant watched as the underworld-born creature thrashed its head about for all but four seconds before a rather furious explosion blistered from its uncovered muzzle. A spray of blood and matter flew through the air, the Brumak screamed... literally screamed as the front of its face was nearly blown off to the point of even going up underneath the helmet it wore.

Blinking wide with jaw slightly dropped, Marcus lost all train of thought after witnessing what seemed goddamn near impossible. The firefight that erupted from either side – human and Locust – stopped almost instantly as all eyes turned upwards towards the flailing Brumak that had just been wounded. The confidence that the Drones fought under with the Brumak leading the brunt of the charge on the humans was now a fragile thing cracking as their prized trump card bled out upon them.

"Wow... what the hell just happened to that thing?" Dominic Santiago stared with rather wide eyes and the same look of confusion that Marcus bore.

"Who cares?" Baird broke in suddenly while reloading a new clip into his Lancer, the blonde near seething as he knew they were running _very _low on ammo now. "It could be God himself for all I care, so long as that ugly ass fucker goes down!" He shouted above the renewed fire that poured in on their location as the Locust seemed to have snapped back to attention out of their momentary dumbfounded stupor.

_Hawx pulled the trigger on the Longshot for what was hopefully the last time as the several remaining Drones were now in full retreat. Looking away from the the reticle of the sniper rifle, Hawx blew out the deep inhale that had been taken to steady both heart rate and body as the final shot was taken, the spent air sounding like a low hiss that only the sniper could hear inside of the helmet. While satisfied with the fact that the Drones had basically been slaughtered and scraps were in retreat, Hawx never once pried that steady gaze from the battlefield, especially as one Gear from Delta squad was now tearing across the empty street towards the former Locust barricade. Watching in slight amusement, Hawx couldn't help but smirk as the Gear tossed a bulo after the Drones, the explosion crippling a straggler and leaving it crawl pathetically after its comrades that didn't dare turn to help it. The amusement that Hawx found was momentary as in a matter of seconds the helmet's binocular view-plate zoomed in on a Drone that suddenly stopped while the others continued to run._

_The sniper's whole body tensed and on instinctive reflex Hawx was lining up the shot before the Drone even lifted its Hammerburst and aimed at the Gear that chainsawed through the fallen Drone. Like hell Hawx was going to let one of Delta's Gears suddenly drop dead after the firestorm they had been through not more than a minute ago. Before the Gear was aware of what was going on, or the Drone realizing its own life was at an end, Hawx pulled the trigger. The silent _ping_ of the round leaving the chamber out through the silencer at the end of the muzzle was the only sound Hawx barely heard before pulling back from the punched out hole in the wall that had served as a window to the enemy position. Pushing up out of the sprawled position on the floor and into a relaxed crouch, Hawx sat back on his heels and rested the Longshot across the tops of his knees. The helmet suddenly felt suffocating, and in a rare moment that Hawx only experienced far and few between after high intensity stress, the sniper was tempted to remove the all encompassing helmet that served as a back-up weapon more than actual protection. A temptation that was all but annihilated by the sudden tremor that shook the small bit of world, the sniper's eyes widening suddenly as horrendous memories danced at the forefront of the mind in a flash. The high shrieking sound of metal, the muted whomp of chopper blades, the streak of panic – it all came rushing back to the sniper like a nightmarish shock wave, reality bitch-slapping Hawx with the god awful bellow of the beastly war machine ripping through that small strip of street._

_The building that Hawx had camped up in shook briefly, small slips of debris falling through the cracks in the ceiling while small chunks of concrete bounced and pattered across the floor. Scrambling to get back up into a kneeling position and hoisting the Longshot up to use its scope, Hawx felt every breath taken come as a sharp inhale as the scope bounced momentarily with the shake of a tremor. Glancing away from the scope, helmet view-plate zooming in on the hellish beast strapped and chained with massive weapons of Locust design, several thoughts raced through Hawxs' mind at that moment – one, even with as great a shot as Hawx was there was no way a Longshot round was going to take down a Brumak; two, it didn't matter if that thing was the same one that annihilated Omega Squad or not it was going down; three, there was a Torque Bow held on the back of Hawxs' waist by the magnetic clamp. The sniper's eyes flew wide at the end of the last thought, the Longshot nearly falling to the ground as Hawx scrambled to snatch the Locust weapon up. There so no second thought, nothing near the gesture of hesitation, as Hawx loaded one of the explosive bolts and aimed the weapon at the Brumak with the accurate HUD system of the helmet working on the aim as a detached scope._

_The Brumak's face twitched this way and that, searching out the humans it had been ordered above ground to kill. Hawx followed the creature's movement with a steady gaze, breathing came slower and steadier as Hawx sought to quell a racing heart as the sights aligned and the only uncovered vulnerable part of the Brumak was picked out. With one long inhale, Hawx felt tension ooze out of every pore and muscle,the slowed beat of the heart now giving a timer. On the in between silence from one beat to the other, Hawx pulled the trigger. In seconds the explosive head was gone, embedding itself within the Brumak's muzzle and then exploding with such tenacious violence that it almost startled the Gear for a second before instinct kicked back in. Muscle memory drove the sniper towards a reload; the Brumak didn't stand a chance now, and what normally seemed impossible to do was about to become the greatest achievement in the sniper's life._

A loud boisterous laugh lifted up even in the midst of their fight for survival, it rang almost as loud as the Lancer fire. "Whoo! Yeah baby!" Augustus "The Cole Train" Cole whooped as he popped up from behind the cement barricade he had tucked himself behind with the appearance of the Brumak. "Blow that bitch's face off! Haha!" He shouted while opening fire on the enemy Locust that were attempting push in on the squad.

Marcus rolled his eyes before peeking out from behind cover to watch as the Brumak thrashed about, arms flailing in every direction as if trying to clobber the unseen enemy that had struck a rather deadly blow to it. Each erratic swing struck the side of a building on either hand of the street, punching through cement and reinforced steel as if they were cardboard and string. One building buckled as it was popped in an already weakened spot, the once six-story place of business became a pile of misshapen rubble as the Brumak continued its tantrum. The falling debris crushed several Drones, others were struck and knocked off their feet from the tsunami like wave of dust that blew up in a second from the demolition.

"TAKE COVER!" Marcus bellowed as he through himself down and up against the upturned hunk of street he and Dom had been forced behind at the start of the firefight.

As the dust cloud rolled in towards Delta Squad, the high pitched whistle of something cutting through the air with a great amount of speed forced all four sets of eyes to turn upwards, blinking rapidly against the invading dust and grim that sought to blind their sight in the first place. None of them had seen it, but from the direction of the sound, they were relieved to know that it had passed over them into the direction of the Brumak and Drones. With vision poor, Delta still peeked out from behind cover with squinted eyes directed towards the seething Brumak as it grunted and snarled with its mangled face dripping untold fathoms of blood from the shredded laces of flesh and muscle that dangled from what hadn't been blown off. The behemoth seemed to calm for a moment, breathing heavy ragged breaths as it tried to get a sense of balance again only to have its nerves upended with the tell-tale whining tick of a grenade echoing deafly in its hearing.

With utter terror mixed rage, the Brumak snarled in frustration before whipping about in a circle to locate the device that was seconds from detonation. However, its mission was utter failure as the last second ticked by in that eerie silence proceeding the following blast that thundered loudly through the battle ravaged streets. A long mournful wail lifted from the Brumak as it teetered on its legs from side to side, the eye lights on its helmet darkened as thick black smoke brewed up from beneath the metal in boiling clouds accented by the flowing rivers of crimson that poured down and sloshed across the dust covered pavement in a morbid puddle around its feet. The Drones that were still on their feet had all but ceased firing as they turned to stare wide-eyed and shocked as their main force of power against the humans they sought to slaughter, now gurgled its last breath before falling forward with the pull of gravity and the push of the massive weight that it carried upon its back in weaponry. A few were far to dumbfounded at what they were seeing to register that fact that the hulking mass of firepower and muscle was now coming down upon them until it was too late to scramble away.

There was a dull thud that rocked the ground in the wake of impact, and for a few unearthly quiet seconds, neither side moved to continue its battle for supremacy (and in the case of the Gears, survival). It wasn't until Cole's rumbling voice carried up from building laughter into an all out victory cry that the fighting resumed. With the Brumak dead, the upper hand now rested with the Gears of Delta Squad that let loose a hellstorm of Lancer fire and bolo grenades that wiped out of the remaining Locust rather easily.

Marcus grunted as he pushed himself out from cover and took a step forward as the last Drone hit the street pavement. "The hell Beta ain't got a sniper on their team." He grumbled under his breath while pressing two fingers to his Tac/Com to radio in to Control.

_There was a satisfaction that came with watching the Brumaks' face become nothing more than shredded meat, a twisted glee in watching the fell creature sway and groan like some whipped dog before it ultimately met it's fate as it sunk to the ground with a shuddering boom. For a brief and very rare moment, Hawxs' lips curved upwards beneath the helmet, glee almost taking over when normally the sniper refused to allow pride or smugness overtake oneself at the end of a battle won. The sniper had been trained, taught, to be vastly different than a normal foot soldier but for that small fraction of time Hawx felt a strong satisfaction. A satisfaction that came in knowing that in some way, somehow, the deaths of Omega Squad had been in a way avenged. The sniper folded the Locust weapon back into its compact state, setting it back on the magnetic clamp while pushing off the ground out of the kneel against the window. Inhaling a long breath while rolling both shoulders to work out the stiffness, Hawx clicked open the Tac/Com link to Sgt. Bartlet and Beta Squad._

"_Sir, mission accomplished. Delta is now in the clear. ETA to your position," The sniper hesitated as the broadband antenna and GPS scan of the helmet's HUD kicked in and spit out the location of Beta to the current location, "Fifteen minutes sir, unless you would rather start moving towards Jacinto and rendezvous at a tear point." Hawx was already winding a path out of the building, moving through a maze of wreckage that seemed more difficult to exit than the original entrance had been._

"_Roger that Hawx, proceed towards direction of Jacinto, we'll rendezvous at the tip of the city." Bartlet's voice scratched over the Tac/Com._

"_Copy that sir, Hawx out."_

Marcus bit back a growl as Anya once again affirmed that Beta Squad didn't have a sniper in their ranks. "Anya, that can't be right; whoever was backing us up and took down that Brumak had to be a fucking sniper! No regular Gear has that kind of sure shot and accurate aim, fuck even with a mortar gun it took me and Dom a hella of a time to take one of those fuckers down on our own, and this Brumak was dropped in less than twenty minutes!"The sergeant all but snarled into his Tac/Com at the blonde intelligence officer back in Jacinto HQ.

"_I'm sorry Marcus," _Anya returned curtly, obviously offended by the Gears' attitude with her at the moment, _"But all COG records and squad listings state that Beta Squad – under the command of Sgt. Bartlet – does not have a known sniper in their numbers." _There was a pause in the conversation as Anya had found something that caught her attention within field records of the moving Gear squads out on patrol or in active missions. _"Marcus, there was a report that came in a few days ago concerning Omega Squad. The squad came under heavy ambush and during an attempted EVAC the whole unit plus the crew of the King Raven were killed. Omega **did** have a sniper." _Again the intelligence officer paused, a noticeable static cutting in as interference was once again resuming. The timing of the static interference came just as Anya spoke up again, _"...lene Hawx... ga squad.. unconfirmed repo... rry Marcus, too much interf-f-f-f-ference... ill you in.. ater!"_

The line cut off with an abrupt screech that bled into a distorted fuzz before going completely dead. Marcus' brow furrowed deeply as he shook his head and hefted his Lancer up into both hands. His steely blue-eyed gaze met the curious looks of his squad mates, each one expecting some sort of relay in information that they assumed their sergeant had for them. Exhaling a sigh that came out as a rough grunt, Marcus merely motioned with a stiff jerk of his head for them to move out. Baird huffed loudly and threw up his hands while Cole merely shrugged and slapped his blonde friend on the shoulder as they started walking again. Dom smirked at Baird's small tantrum from behind as Delta began their hike out of the desolate ruins of the city, but couldn't help but cast a glance over at his friend who remained focused n staring ahead of them rather than striking up a conversation.

_Whatever. _Dom rolled his eyes and slung his Lancer over his shoulder to the magnetic clamp on his back. They had a _long_ hike back to Jacinto ahead of them and the Latino would rather keep arguments and flaring tempers at a minimum seeing as how they just escaped straight out of death's undeniable approach upon their lives.


End file.
